ARTIST STATEMENT
UPROOTED
Investigations
of my relationships, past and present, have shaped the understanding of my
identity. As an artist from a traditional, labor-intensive, blue-collar
background, I use the idea of “home” as a means of creating my own environment
to reconcile my shifting identity. The first in my family to academically and
socially excel has generated a darker side to success. I have found myself
alienated from both my own family and newly found path. My work is driven by a
need to find and scrutinize what is lost in these relationships and alter change
by using connections to “home.”
I strive to communicate the idea of remodeling “self” and “home”
through symbolic means as well as by singling out a portion of a piece away from
the whole. It allows me to uncover new ways of expressing acceptance and
humiliation.
My work is an attempt to reconcile my emotionally charged study of
acceptance. Although we naturally are able to survive alone, we are
continuously looking for location. My approach to a universal theme allows the
work to operate both as a formal tool and conceptual backbone. This gives the
viewer an opportunity to consider their own construction of self through the
work. Once the viewer is able to connect to the work based on their own ideas
of remodeling and acceptance in life, they are experiencing my intent as an
artist.
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