My art is synchronous with phenomenology. It rests in lived experience, through the body, in the world. I believe experience of the individual is always part of the experience of the whole. A mediation or fusion between self and the world.
Perhaps my fascination with metal come from a place deep in my DNA. My father was a materials engineer—metallurgist. I remember picking up a metal test core sample from his desk—a cylinder of metal that fit in the palm of my eight-year old hand. It became a curiosity to me. Struck by its weight and fractured edges, I held it up to the window, and threw reflected flashes of sunlight across the room. I had invented a game to play. Maneuvering the light, watching it dance, captivated me.
I learned how to design and make metal jewelry as a teen. Years later, my experience walking through Christo and Jean Claude’s brilliant orange metal Gates in 2005 was profound. It has become inspiration for my work.
I find a balance between work and play in my art. Opposing aspects of precision and chance lead me to build installations with sculptural forms, and print photogravure images. Having worked with copper, brass, sterling silver, argentium silver, and nugold, I enjoy the challenge of pushing metals to their limit with flame, forming, and UV light rays. The building phase of my work is meditative. It brings me into analysis—an intersection between art and science. The installation phase invites play. Light and color enlivens dialogue between objects and images. I discover things unexpected. Curiosity and spontaneous decision-making guide me. My art aims to offer the viewer an experience akin to what I relished in its creation—a sense of calm—a pause for contemplation—the delight of play.