Artist Statement

We had to do artist statements for seminar today, so I thought I'd post mine:

This work is driven by a deep personal interest in the science of stones, rocks, geologic process and the shaping of the physical earth. From small stones found on the beach to mountains and caves, rocks symbolize a timelessness. They are the foundations on which all life is built. They are the beginning of time and will be the end of time. They are part of our past and our everyday. Both eternal and ephemeral.

Many contrasts exist within this work: hardness and softness, permanence and fragility, precious and worthless, mundane and revered. By pairing common rocks with enamel, gold, silk, and diamonds, they become elevated beyond their common state. The garden-variety rock or dirt is elevated to something to be considered, instead of overlooked. There is spirituality as well as beauty in something so magnificent and so unspectacular as the earth beneath our feet.