Artist Statement

My work examines how we chose to represent, remember, and memorialize those who have died. I investigate this idea through enameled vessels, jewelry, and objects that explore the sentimental attachment to the physical form of someone and how we heal from that absence. Through the use of CAD-CAM processes combined with traditional craft practices, I depict and manipulate the many cell structures that are found within the human body. I utilize iconography drawn from anatomical structures, memento mori, cultural, and religious traditions as I create urns, shrines, and vessels to hold the memories of people. Rituals around death play an important role in the mourning process. It is through these societal rituals that we celebrate the life and death of loved ones. Death only ends a life, not the relationship with that life. I embrace the taboo dialogue that is often surrounding this subject by manifesting the symbolic representation of the spirit within these objects. I investigate how human beings interact with what we hold sacred, what legacies we leave behind, and how we create and carry those connections.