Artist Statement

I am an investigator. My artistic practice isn’t about grand statements, instead it digs out alternative context and narratives within existing media. I like to examine images, to pull them apart and see what's underneath. It becomes a process of dissection, an autopsy. Women’s narratives, including my own, are a constant theme in my body of work. They also pervade my scholarly interests as an Art Historian and Writer. I often find my art practice merging into my research as a scholar, and the resulting art becomes a physical manifestation of that scholarship. I want to know what happens when we take something autobiographical in nature, and lay it under the lens of collective experience. Stories repeat and become increasingly familiar. Even if they aren’t mine, I can find a piece of myself in them.
My process as an artist hinges on repetition– not just editioning prints, or carving texture in clay– but the act of making ad nauseam. I get lost in the labor of it all. The compulsion to create, stemming from a pathological need to understand things and glean information both technically and emotionally. At its core, my work is an exploration of what I call “Postmodern Girlhood” – the moment as a woman, when you realize there are no real objective truths. That trying to be “good” has just been a method of control. My work is a shedding of skin. A removal of deeply ingrained belief systems. It reveals women’s narratives that thrive in a world bent on our destruction. It is about taking power back.