Artist Statement

Artistic practice is a combination of the pursuit of ideas and ideals and openness to discovery and change along the way. There is a grounding in central ideas constantly guiding artistic experimentation and making, but the discoveries made along the way either by change or as a result of scientific experimentation have the potential to suggest entirely new projects and directions proving even more meaningful and impactful than originally imagined.

Making art is a process, involving study, comparison, listening, incorporating new ideas and constant evolution. Work becomes itself in the making.

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I explore ceramics as a meditative practice and as a method of seeking and expressing simplicity in a crazy-busy chaotic world. I believe artistic practices and sudden exposure to objects of unexpected beauty and grandeur provide a pathway to imagination, the experience of being grounded, and alternative ways of experiencing the world. These unsettling moments of sublime encounter have the potential to reset human relationships to nature, society, and the divine.

My artistic practice includes an ongoing exploration of natural materials. The field of ceramics works directly with raw materials found in the periodic table of elements and with natural materials extracted from the earth. These materials exhibit a variety of properties when exposed to extreme heat, including variations in strength, texture, colour, and finish. Explorations with these materials opens me to new possibilities for expressing simple beauty and majesty directly correlated to earth elements. 

Recent experiments with metal have led me to wall-mounted mixed media installations where the combination of ceramic materials and highly polished metal components provide a striking contrast to one another in my pursuit of the provocative and sublime. These combinations require technical competence as I expand the size, weight, and joining of these materials. I have an engineering degree and regularly draw upon technical knowledge of gravity, mass, torque, and force in my exploration of simplicity, particularly as they relate to the attachment and protrusion of metal and ceramic objects from the wall.

I accompany these material explorations with experiments in form. Just as the earth elements provide an avenue of awe-inspiring simplicity, shapes also offer these potentials. Paring work down to its simplest forms has led me to an exploration of archetypes. Archetypal forms serve as prototypes or models for all other existing and possible shapes, carrying with them an underlying symbology that can prove intriguing to artist and viewer alike. 

My most recent explorations have expanded to include scale as I attempt to inspire grandeur and awe. Using a former 22” circular work as a maquette, I am increasing the scale to cover an entire gallery wall. This work introduces new technical challenges as weight and material strength pose new installation difficulties. 

My former work was largely monochromic, an explosion of deep cobalt blue and metal produced directly from raw materials. In this current work, I seek to deepen the viewer’s experience of awe and pique interest by eliminating colour altogether, varying texture, and pairing natural ceramic elements with the striking contrast of highly polished metal.