My sculptures exist at the intersection of biology and fairy tales. Natural objects are collected, preserved, merged with technological elements, and transformed into immersive environments.
Scroll down this page for an overview of my work.
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Luminous Gardens
The Luminous Gardens are inspired by childhood memories of playing outdoors in nature and reading fairy tales with their stories of transformation and enchantment. Animating natural elements with technology, these garden environments glow with LED's embedded in translucent forms cast from seed pods.
Recasting Nature
Natural forms like leaves, acorns, acorn caps, seed pods, and branches become, through repetition and improvisation, cell-like building blocks for new structures. In Ice Forest, viewers can walk through hundreds of suspended translucent cast resin rose stems, complete with thorns.
Public Art
As with my studio practice, my public art projects explore relationships between natural and man-made worlds. Often relying on the interplay of light, material, and site the works create a sense of place, inviting people to enter in and experience each environment in a physical way. The works are designed to be in harmony with their surroundings, and to become a pleasurable part of everyday life.
Leaf Dreams
Inspired by falling leaves, these indoor environments contrast with the trees outside. Using leaves that I have collected, dried, and dipped in beeswax, the sculptures capture transitory phenomena re-formed in playful ways. These works serve as meditations on processes of loss and regeneration.
Environments
My Environments constructions are immersive installations, performance environments, or permanent sculptures that change their surroundings through direct and reflected light.
Prints and Threads
Prints features works on paper derived from copper plates or digital scans which investigate the near microscopic world of decaying leaves.
Threads encompasses works that amplify small objects through the act of repetition. Beaded works use repeated actions to physically embody the passage of time. Many threads are shaped into fragile forms which adhere to spaces in the delicate manner of cobwebs. A series of sculptures made entirely of wooden toothpicks are inspired by the branching structure of a delicate desert plant observed in Arizona. All of the works in the Threads section share this means of constructing new forms by repeating single units of an existing material.