artist statements

Keys

The seat of consciousness must periodically be unlocked, realigned and accessed in order to experience fear, love and awe.

Repetitive thoughts and systematic use however, wear and burnish the mind. The longer we neglect access to the self, the more time goes by, the less aware and forgetful we become of the possibility to reset. Over time, how to do so becomes an elusive memory leaving us in vague desperation.

A sense of frustration underlies the absurdity of combining the Gestalt of function (keys) and feathers in my work. The perceived delicacy of feathers conflicts with the precision of the tool and the gouges in the silver. It looks as if the keys are worn. At the same time, we can imagine the feather’s intact quills being damaged upon use and conclude that the keys are useless. The soft feathers somehow psychologically block the function of the sterling silver keys. For us, longing for the self makes my objects precious.

Phage

Because viruses lack the cellular machinery required to replicate their own genetic material, they are not considered to be alive. These “particles” can only reproduce after commandeering live animal or plant cells.

Little is known about the minuscule structures of viruses since we are unable to observe them directly. This lead me to piece together their images based on electron micrographs and conjecture in scientific literature.

In this series of woven copper sculpture, I have compiled images of several different types of Phage (viruses that attack bacteria). Much of viral architecture is based on the icosahedron, a twelve sided envelope or “capsid” that houses a virus’s DNA or RNA. The nucleocapsid enclosing the Pseudomonas phi6 virus’s DNA however is dodecahedral.

Northern Liberties Before Blatstein

Starting in 2006, I began documenting the dissipation of urban character in the neighborhood of Northern Liberties. What started out as my photographing urban decay turned into a race to capture images that were giving way to the glass and concrete of real estate development. Patchwork sidewalks, graffiti, broken window panes, deteriorating brick – much of what makes the environment challenging, was being razed. The series of original prints titled “Northern Liberties Before Blatstein” refers to a complex setting altered by gentrification.

Thimbles

I am very interested in the idea of “personal” or “private art”: art for the individual, art to be experienced by an audience of one. My education is in silversmithing and jewelry but I have become more interested in a more modest, everyday object; the thimble. With my Thimble Series, I wanted to create something besides adornment as precious or as sentiment provoking. Particularly conscientious after the great recession, and tending to look down on conspicuous consumption.

Woven Sculptures

coming soon