Artist Statement

I was drawn to mosaic work during a time of profound unrest in my young life. I had had an artistic bent since my early childhood, but never really connected to a particular type of art, which had left me feeling unmoored creatively. 

Initially, it was the calm, meticulous way of working that appealed to me - this was something slow and manageable. Cutting stone with a hammer was powerful and final. Gluing tesserae down was permanent and tactile. I decided to commit fully to this medium, and as I learned more about it, I began to see the freedom in the mosaic medium. There are limits, which allows me to orient myself. But within those limits is a whole world of creative potential. 

As I have grown both as an artist and as a person, this foundation of mosaic has allowed me to explore my own creativity and, consequently, other mediums. I can apply the concepts of mosaic andamento to drawing, and the tactile aspect of working with glue to sculpting with clay. I can translate the impulse to construct something physical into creating photographs with wonderful collaborators. 

Conceptually, I feel that all my work is narrative, both the figurative and the abstract. Often through my abstract artwork I am telling a chronological story, meant to be viewed from top to bottom or side to side. My goal in my art is to take complicated feelings like joy and fear and make them into something simple and clear. My ultimate honor is to be able to share these pieces with other people, and find that many things that feel isolating are, in reality, part of the human experience.