Artist Statement

I make art about women, our social world, and underling it all, about our beautiful planet.
But my art journey begins at the end….my pieces are constructed from the remains of our endangered natural world - shells, bones and dried plant life. Lives that have unfolded and expired beyond my awareness.
But there is still something left of them - an aura of memory, a final testament. This is what directs my process and unfolds through the creation of each piece.
But in the early 2000’s, I began work on a piece that was to send me hurtling into calamity.
I had decided to remake the biblical figure of Adam with a new thought in mind. He would not be about domination, subjugation and control. But rather about a symbiotic, interconnected relationship with the natural world.
But through the fine grinding of the mussel shells that formed his body, I was unexpectedly, exposed to some of the very pollutants (mercury, arsenic, cadmium and lead) that damage this beautiful planet.
I suffered devastating neurological damage - severe hearing loss, brain injury, crippling mental health and metabolic injuries from which I will never recover.
But perhaps I was just a fragile place, where the suffering and sorrow of the natural world, struggling in the wake of human progress and consumption, could finally punch through and make its voice be heard.
I had experienced the anguish of so many creatures trapped in their polluted habitats and am now, forever bound to their urgent message.
But as I continue to create work about our endangered natural world, I go forward with great hope.
Because the pieces that have emerged from this darkness are beautiful.
And because Adam, my Adam, is reborn....