Artist Statement

The biggest influence in my work is the process of creation itself. Some landscapes seem to make themselves– the path of least resistance becomes a rivulet, becomes a stream, becomes a canyon. A face is pressed out of warm wax, the hollows in its bones exactly the right shape for my thumb. Glass is not alive, yet its heat and movement give it the semblance of a mind of its own, influencing its final shape in the process. My work focuses on the fantastic and the magical, ranging from literal fantasy creatures to the mundane magic of erosion and topography. Every new technique I learn influences the pieces I make: carving a plaster mold to echo the shape of cliffs formed over centuries, and polishing surfaces to catch the light and cause unexpected reflections. I love looking for the why of things, and finding the hidden techniques that help make them. Illusion is the foundation for creation: this flat canvas panel is a hole through which we can see another world, that creature exists in reality now that I’ve made it, and the barest bones of a structure can set the stage for a landscape whose architecture exists solely in thought. Glass in its nature leans into the idea of illusion, being a medium of seeming contradictions and fascinating optics. Cold it shatters, hot it bends and flows, and though the processes that shape it leave evidence behind, it remains a mystery to the untrained eye. Once you know what to look for the impossibility is explained, and yet a feeling of wonder remains. Creation itself is a type of magic, one that is so much a part of every artist it seems not worth mentioning. And yet there is a wonder in the everyday making of things, a feeling of awe I hope to share. I want to pursue the idea of impossibilities and strive to make things that seem less feasible than they are, encouraging the viewer to see a world that is everything that made it.