Artist Statement

I make small, graphite drawings of the unseen minutiae of domestic life: the sounds of being at home, and the feelings they elicit. Aural indices of companionship and modern comforts become shapes whose strength reflects the value of these signifiers of well-being.  Interdependent with feelings, sound can nourish, repel, mark time, and shift with the weather.  Ever present, it eludes direct observation and feels internal and external at once. 

Often, my imagery refers to a particular Iron Age Etruscan votive ear from the Harvard Museum collection.  The ear is tear-drop shaped and recognizable as a body part, while being awkward in its inexactness. Here, the cochlea, where sound enters the body, is triangular, mysterious, a portal to the realm of inner life.

Votives were widespread in ancient Etruria and are found in sanctuary sites. I imagine a connection, across a chasm of time, to forbears visiting a sacred space with their hopes and fears. This, and the relic’s literal persistence into the present, reassures me.  Art is the sanctuary to which I bring my tumultuous inner life.

Complementary to these drawings, I make objects and collages meant to embody a balance between system and chance, representing a state of being with enough stability to provide a firm foundation yet flexible enough to be adaptive and allow for possibility. Through the language of material experimentation and process, these wall-hung works suggest joy, listening, attention to particulars, and curiosity about interdependence.  They communicate an attitude of care.