All the parts that make me me are greater when I join with you.  So, too, when we join with others, the greater we become.

 

My abstract wall sculptures are constructed from altered slip-cast and slab-built ceramic elements in various shapes.  They can be as small as a one-inch cube or as large as a 12-inch circle. I push the elements together and around each other. Ultimately, they settle into their own relationships with each other, sometimes precarious, other times solid. I adhere the ceramics to shaped plywood, the back of which is brightly painted. Embedded hardware floats the work an inch from where it’s mounted, creating space for light and shadow to dance in the reflected color.

 

My newest project, 108 Contemplations, grows from work started in November, 2024 at the Obracadobra Artist Residency in Oaxaca. Similar to my ceramic elements, each small drawing is defined by its simplicity and individual uniqueness. Each can stand on its own but has so much more power when combined with others.  This is a recurrent theme in my work; the whole is more than the sum of parts.  The vertices, the negative spaces, all the places where we rub up against each other, smoothly or with friction.  Electric with possibility.  So says Thich Nhat Hanh; the coming buddha is a sangha.

 

These are challenging times. May we be resilient.  May we be in the company of others.  May we hold each other up in grief and in beauty.  May we know deeply that we are more together than we are apart.