ARTIST STATEMENTS
ARTIST STATEMENT IN GENERAL 2025
My work exists at the intersection of sculpture, ceramics, sound, photography, film, performance, and installation. I approach these disciplines as different ways of investigating the same concerns: transformation, belief, power, mortality, and the human desire to construct meaning. Whether I am forming a vessel, building an experimental instrument, or constructing a fictional institution, I am interested in how objects shape our understanding of ourselves and the worlds we inhabit.
As a sculptor and ceramic artist, I approach the vessel as an extension of the body. Vessels contain, preserve, protect, and conceal. Their interiors suggest organs, chambers, laboratories, and sacred spaces. Clay records touch and pressure, undergoes transformation through fire, and emerges as something both fragile and enduring. These qualities make it a compelling material for exploring the relationship between physical experience and symbolic meaning.
My practice draws on the overlapping histories of scientific inquiry, medicine, mythology, and ritual. I am interested in the objects these systems produce and the authority we assign to them. An instrument, specimen, ceremonial vessel, or museum label can influence what we believe before we fully understand what we are seeing. My work uses this uncertainty to invite closer attention and questioning.
In The Exhibition for the History of The Division, I constructed the institutional history of a fictional hermetic organization through life-sized wax figures, sculpture, fabricated artifacts, documents, and recorded narratives. By adopting the conventions of museum display, I explored how classification, presentation, and institutional authority can make an invented history appear credible.
My ceramic work extends these questions through objects that move between functional vessels, ceremonial instruments, and sculpture. Some serve contemporary spiritual and magical practices; others suggest purposes that remain unresolved. Their forms invite viewers to consider whether they are encountering something useful, sacred, biological, or mechanical.
Sound brings these investigations into direct contact with the body. My experimental instruments, including the Anti-Tank Guitar, explore vibration, resonance, and the physical relationship between a listener and an environment. Sound can turn an encounter with an object into an experience felt throughout the body.
Ultimately, I create objects and environments that suggest histories beyond their immediate appearance. Through material, sound, and narrative, I invite viewers into unfamiliar worlds where scientific inquiry and the sacred meet. I want those encounters to feel simultaneously ancient and futuristic, recognizable and impossible, beautiful and unsettling.
ARTIST STATEMENT ABOUT CERAMICS 2023
Initially, I saw ceramics merely as a medium, holding a rigid view of its potential. It took me a decade to realize the splendor and magnitude of objects built with Mother Earth. Whether they were sculptural or functional, these objects harnessed the power of the natural Elements to come to life. In fact, ceramics were among the earliest creations of humankind, playing a crucial role in our evolution to the present day, where we are intertwined with electronic devices and could be considered cyborgs. This realization has led me to explore the past, now creating objects from found clay bodies and crafting totems and instruments as if I were living ten thousand years ago.
Yet, it is not just the historical significance of ceramics that drives me. I have also had the opportunity to work with indigenous peoples across the Americas. I am honored that they have shared their knowledge of building traditional objects with me. From Peruvian whistling vessels used in sacred ceremonies to flutes crafted by Costa Ricans, I have come to understand the spirituality inherent in the medium of clay. I have witnessed practitioners dig from the Earth and shape her into forms, solidifying them using her trees and stones.
As a Water Pourer in sweat lodges, I have studied with Lakota and Mayan elders for many years, crafting my own ceramic vessels for sacred ceremonies, which deepens my connection to Spirit and my Ancestors. My affinity for working with clay is so strong that I feel a sense of deprivation when I am unable to feel it in my hands. It serves as my direct connection to Mother Earth, our peoples, and our shared history.