My work is predominantly comprised of ceramic and mixed media sculptures but is also heavily based in 3-D modeling programs. I use these technologies to quickly generate ideas for the tangible forms I create. With these programs I am able to take the human body into various poses that would, in the real world, be impossible to recreate. I take the models of human figures provided by the software, which are all physically flawless by default, and work to alter and distort them in various ways. These distortions speak to the limits of the physical body and represent its vulnerability.

The Way of Grace grew out of the realization that the figures, though torqued and twisted, retained a sense of beauty, humility, and humanity despite their deformities. It focuses on the liminal and dichotomous mind/body relationship, and, through a juxtaposing of elements such as bone and flesh, notions of weakness and strength, birth, life, and death, the work invites the viewer to meditate on all of these seemingly tense and warring relationships. These relate to and reflect psychological states of uncertainty and stress the underlying complexity of interpersonal relationships and communication. The distortions and surreal aspects in my work are sites of lacking and vulnerability that are metaphors for the vulnerable and more tender parts of the “self”. Rather than understand Grace as a God-given gift, bestowed upon some, my work portrays Grace as the state of mind and being whereby individuals can recognize and accept their own and others’ imperfections, the imperfect and wonderful nature of the world. My work represents the sad yet beautiful nature of life as something temporal which we as individuals grapple with, trying to make meaning out of the time we have while understanding and accepting our nature as transient beings.