Artist Statement

 I create sculptural word bodies that take on influence from everyday experiences and stylized text that I see on my commute to work. The ideas for my pieces often emerge through reflections while looking out the window on the train. My work distills the surroundings of Chicago into sculptures, often encouraging an awareness and appreciation for overlooked parts of the city.

Through the creation of large, wheel-thrown torus vessels or extruded forms, I break down simple shapes into complex sections to create intricate constructions. These specific forms are based on inspirations from topology, a branch of mathematics, which similarly explores how the identity of a space or object can be represented in infinite ways. Assembling the cut-up forms into sculptures allows for an intuitive approach to creating pieces that reflect the mixing and matching of thoughts and interests into gestural word forms. The improvised nature of the sculptures’ creation is juxtaposed with methodically crafted curves and sharp corners to capture the fluidity of an experience. They are composed to show an expression of a word or feeling, similar to a jazz musician improvising on a steady beat. 

These pieces also characterize the emotions through the use of color. Some pieces use lush glaze and bright underglaze colors applied to porcelain forms that can signal traits like sincerity, honesty, and vulnerability in the stories behind the word sculptures. Other pieces are made from stoneware forms using more muted glazes and oxides, often expressing a surrealist interpretation of physical objects as a response to living in the city. By calling upon influences from everyday life and expressing them through language, shape, color, and texture, these sculptures speak to our interactions with objects, relationships between people, and moments in time. These sculptures call viewers to notice the details of transient environments in which they exist and hopefully inspire reflection in their own lives as they engage with the culture of the city.