Artist Statement

In creating my work, I am analyzing and exploring my ​identities through culture, location, gender, and home. I challenge perceptions around mental illness and explore the dualities of acceptance and confusion, traditional and modern, body and soul, beauty and pain. My work is authentic because of its imperfections, vulnerability, and the balance of chaos with beauty. My work is a celebration of the flawed human. Humans are beautiful because of their flaws, resilience, and complexities. The materials of paper, fabric, and clay mimic the characteristics of being strong and fragile, simple and complex, common and unique. Furthermore, the textures bring these materials to life; the fibers of the paper, the crinkles and wrinkles, the finger impressions on clay, and little nuances of the human hand. Perfection is only interesting for so long before humans are unable to relate. That is why I embrace the little marks of the evidence of a long process, and find ways to honor them. In doing so, I hope the viewer sees the cracks, the rips, the uneven surfaces, the tensions and the softness, and sees themself, equally faulty and equally beautiful because all those inconsistent characteristics come together to create something real and true. Each piece has provided healing by reflecting on my own depressive episodes. It is from these deep investigations that I am able to understand and accept myself for all that I am. I hope the viewer is able to share this experience of acceptance of the work and of themselves.