Artist Statement

Recycled textiles, rusty metals, and other found objects have become my newest medium of choice in creating my sculptures. I want to use what others overlook, the things people tend to toss aside. Unwanted items pack our landfills, yet I am finding more and more ways to combine such materials to create something new, something unusual, unforgettable. I like to learn new techniques and explore new materials. I use encaustic wax as the foundation, then build from there. Each piece evolves over time with layer upon layer of texture until it reveals to me how it wants to grow and what it wants to be. Working with wax, textiles, and found objects is a highly physical process requiring heating, carving, cutting, and sewing, all while seeding color. Then comes the layering and building, followed by deconstruction, tearing the piece back down and rebuilding, over and over until the fusion is revealed as a whole. I see the process and the resulting sculpture as a meditation on our future, past, and current state of being.