My sculptures explore the dichotomy between society’s compulsion to preserve insentient, nostalgic belongings vs. their participation in industrial trends of disposable products and fast fashion.
I obsessively use recycled materials and found objects to create sculptures that invoke curiosity in viewers about the origins of the materials, while they inevitably anthropomorphize the piece. I love watching them connect with these cute, creepy, and quirky characters. I find their response entertaining and fascinating, especially since they are essentially looking at a wonky, abstract assemblage of refuse.
People love and cling to certain items despite that they definitely cannot reciprocate feelings. Even if they’re all shabby and worthless, we don’t want to let them go.
Meanwhile, other stuff is just junk no one cares about that overflows landfills.
My critters are hand sewn using old jeans, fabric scraps, threads from potato bags or frayed canvases, fiber-fill stuffing from old cushions, armatures of rusty fishing wire and wire coat hangers from scrap metal bins, buttons from Granny’s generations-old stash, bits found on the road, a beach, my garden…
My stitchery is intentionally inconsistent to give the impression of repeated repairs and mending throughout the critter’s long “life”.
I coat the entire piece in a secret proprietary acrylic-based concoction then apply the final fossilized effect in a limited palette of acrylic paint. The monochromatic, fossil-esque finish solidifies its permanence, giving the impression it’s a precious relic that has endured time and can be idolized forever. It’s important garbage with personality now.