My goal is to capture viewers with unexpected objects and surfaces. Once caught, the viewer is open to the deeper emotional message. 21st century expectations about femininity - that women can have it all and be it all: sex goddess and Madonna, earth mother and bread winner - are ridiculous. I like taking society's seductive images to their opposite extremes: long, smooth hair becomes a tangled rat's nest, big breasts become multi-nippled feeding machines, long legs and high heels reach to precarious heights. I take equality of gender, race, sexuality and age very seriously, but I want my work to feel joyous and absurd. The deadliest way to expose and disarm prejudice is to exaggerate it until the viewer joins the laughter.
I select and arrange objects that I collect into combinations that appeal to me, always looking for humorous juxtapositions. Often, I find that my constructions suggest the female body, either natural and unenhanced or taken to the extremes presented in contemporary media. The process is playful and intuitive but becomes more conscious as I find the message in the materials. Then there is the challenge of uniting meaningful objects into an organic whole that is structurally sound. I enjoy manipulating the symbols to enhance the story and often may remake a piece several times until it feels finished and satisfies my intention.
In the current series of my sculptural work, I choose tactile materials: hair, fur, wood, straw, and found objects, which entice the viewer to touch and stroke the work. I search for feminine objects: cooking utensils, curlers, shoe trees, baby nipples and broom straws. These objects become my language and serve as visual shorthand. The color pink is regularly present in varying shades: pale and grayed pinks, hinting at the passage of time, and the garish pinks of childhood toys. The shades of this color contrast well with the natural earth colors and echo the theme of natural versus constructed femininity. “Earth Mother II”, covered in baby nipples connects materially to “Venus”, with its nipples poking through a mesh sieve and “Vulnerable”, a sieve with protruding broom straws, that suggests danger.
I select and arrange objects that I collect into combinations that appeal to me, always looking for humorous juxtapositions. Often, I find that my constructions suggest the female body, either natural and unenhanced or taken to the extremes presented in contemporary media. The process is playful and intuitive but becomes more conscious as I find the message in the materials. Then there is the challenge of uniting meaningful objects into an organic whole that is structurally sound. I enjoy manipulating the symbols to enhance the story and often may remake a piece several times until it feels finished and satisfies my intention.
In the current series of my sculptural work, I choose tactile materials: hair, fur, wood, straw, and found objects, which entice the viewer to touch and stroke the work. I search for feminine objects: cooking utensils, curlers, shoe trees, baby nipples and broom straws. These objects become my language and serve as visual shorthand. The color pink is regularly present in varying shades: pale and grayed pinks, hinting at the passage of time, and the garish pinks of childhood toys. The shades of this color contrast well with the natural earth colors and echo the theme of natural versus constructed femininity. “Earth Mother II”, covered in baby nipples connects materially to “Venus”, with its nipples poking through a mesh sieve and “Vulnerable”, a sieve with protruding broom straws, that suggests danger.