I make object-based sculptures that speak to the human condition. Reflective of the more serious parts of life and its struggles, my pieces highlight this austerity without taking themselves too seriously. By exaggerating the scale or changing the material, I make them completely non-functional. Objects that are easily trivialized can become dangerous. Objects that are really small can have an outsized importance. The pieces are honest with their own irony. A giant nail file both challenges the notion that femininity is unimportant by making the object treacherous, and pokes fun at how I have a crisis every time I break a nail in the shop. Nurturing convenience turned disproportionate: heavy, sharp, dangerous. Cast glass, angle grinder discs, which obviously cannot function, push back at the idea that woman are “too abrasive” because they are supposed to be fragile.
My work is often about preserving my individuality and femininity in the dirty world of making metal sculpture. I wear my eyeliner with the same level of importance as my safety glasses. When removed from the body, oversized, and cast in iron, the form, while mimicking my eyes, becomes graphic and intimidating. I aim to politely mock societal expectations, and to have viewers consider their own expectations and how that impacts their perception of my pieces and the world at large. A pile of bobby pins, familiar to most women, blown up to become a human-sized nest and garner the attention they deserve. Delicate tools of beauty made in an iron forge.