About Boxes
Stacks of my small ceramic sculptures serve as models for my paintings. In the new context of a painting, these handcrafted, geometric sculptures transform from boxes in a still life to architecture to symbols of priorities. I think about what is hidden and what is seen within a box, a building, or a person. How do individual priorities motivate a person? I think about architecture and our built surroundings as I drive by newly clear-cut properties being prepped for a new apartment complex or shopping center. What motivates a group of people to alter their environment? Lately as I stack and arrange the sculptures, I think about organizing my own priorities and how my priorities affect my interactions with people, physical space, or materials. By allowing the sculptures to be on view next to paintings in exhibitions, I ask the audience to question the malleability of our built environments.
My paintings respond to their surrounding environment due to the materials I select. The surface I paint on is translucent, which conflicts with the nature of a box hiding something inside. The paint is thinned using water which contributes to an ethereality that allows light and color to interact when installed unframed. This soft, revealing quality of the material and nuance in application of paint again contrasts with the heavily manufactured nature of the material and industrial installation using nails and magnets.
