Artist Statement

I create small metalwork and encaustic assemblage paintings to encourage people to reconnect with nature by showing the precious details and found treasures they often overlook. I use a combination of natural materials and found objects such as jackfruit, stones, fossils, tree buds, and glass in my artwork.

I use jackfruit as a physical material, conceptual inspiration, and as a tool in the creation of my art. Deconstructing the fruit reveals an array of unique textures and forms. From their rough prickly skin and soft overlapping fiber tendrils that encase the fruit pods, to the thin layers that cocoon each seed preparing to germinate, I am drawn to the minute details and infinite variations within this fascinating large fruit.

Found materials in nature and memories from my past also inspire me. My love of nature comes from memories of spending time playing in the mud, catching falling samaras, and hiking as a child. Blossoming sugar maple tree buds are kinetic forms I use in my work. Their flowering tendrils move like silent wind chimes in the springtime. While mudlarking in local creek beds, I collect discarded glass, fossils, or stones that catch my eye. These found objects have interesting organic shapes due to the constant abrasion of the flowing creek water. I combine colorful glass and metal to create contrast between the bright translucent glass and the cold opaque metal. I follow the unique shapes and patterns found within fossils and stones to form relationships between materials and abstracting the forms into my art. My intention is to take once discarded detritus and transform it into something meaningful.