What happens
when your context for remembering is six thousand miles away? Immigrants experience this phenomenon of liminality every day. We are time travelers, aliens, and others. We live in the past while navigating the present. I construct objects and settings as portals that address this loss. We remember by way of texture. Marks and patterns can recover an obscure past. Molten pewter fills the void of carved marks. Chiseled stone becomes an anchor for weighted memories.
The shifting, slippery spaces in the vastness of our minds become
moments of solace.
This is a snapshot of my MFA thesis work. Completed May 2022
Abrasive, Blistered, Burnished…
Bubbly, Caked, Cottony…
Crisp, Crunchy, Cratered…
Dripping, Dry, Encrusted…
Etched, Feathery, Flaky…
Fuzzy, Gooey, Grainy…
The void of memory is a hungry place.
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An investigation of materials– meditative by nature of the monotonous and intensive processes such as carving, chiseling, braiding, hammering and fabricating. I approach making with the same curiosity I had as a child. My studio becomes a world of play and fantasy where the possibilities are limitless - this play is informed by traditional and non-traditional craft and metalsmithing techniques
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I propose storytelling and world building through objects and immersion. Through abstraction, these works evoke feelings of the familiar. My objects are way finders - tools of navigation that allow me to travel back into the recesses of my mind. The various textures are meditative and intuitive.
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Texture is transportive, it guides our daydreams, and shapes our memories. When experiencing a textured object, we might brush our skin against it, or imagine crisp, rough edges in our minds. It forms our understanding of tangible and palpable experiences. Using texture, we discern what was once lost. My objects are the results of proposed realities.
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