Artist Statement, 2011

My ongoing creative work recontextualizes and subverts common objects or beliefs as a proxy to examine the complex

terrain that women must navigate to shape an identity within a culture offering mixed directives in that pursuit. The

conceptual goal is to illuminate the paucity of positive, if not reasonable, feminist social messages by specifically delving

into the morass of negative ones in order to reclaim or destroy them from within. Interjecting humor into the critique not

only exploits the absurd agendas of such “norms,” but also creates a more hospitable situation to introduce contrary

arguments defining why they do not serve women well when considered with a bit of laughter.  I deliberately use source

materials from the eras belonging to my mother and grandmother in the construction of my imagery—from vintage girdles,

dresses, decorative mid-century chalkware, to flash cards used to educate children—as these items reference a bygone

era but convey my intentions much clearer than such items of contemporary times.  We are more apt to think about

inequities faced by women in times when the sexism was more obvious, and perhaps find possibilities in the work that

connect to our lives today.

Production methods used to make the work are diverse in media and skills, including women’s handcrafts, couture sewing,

digitized embroidery and digital imaging, but also incorporate sculptural techniques like metal and plaster casting. Time is

another key element in my artwork, I am attracted to repetitive activities that yield rich textures through obsessive

accumulations of marks or surface manipulations.  Most of my work takes many months to a year to make a gallery-ready

object, and I like the distinctive look of something made by hand in this age of commercialization and use of mass-made

items in contemporary art-making.  It was a natural inclination in my artwork, having grown up in a large extended family

of women who were/are “makers,” viewing this work both in terms of filling practical household needs as well as a vehicle

of expressing esteem for the recipient of the handwork.  I was taught to sew by machine at the age of three and have

always considered it commonplace to be engaged in a handcraft, creating objects of highest quality. My pieces are neither

sculpture, computer generated imagery, nor garment in their purest form--but rather a chimerical mixture of what I find

interesting or necessary about these mediums with the time and effort I undertook to complete a single gallery-ready

object.

I began this research as a young, third-wave feminist in 1993 who saw a lack of organized direction in the movement, and

an overwhelming excess of mixed messages of how to craft aspects of my own identity.  Now, I also work with the next

wave of young feminists in mind, individuals who have more opportunities than those who came before them, yet are no

longer comfortable self-identifying as a feminist for fear of being seen as mean-spirited and hateful (rather than embracing

in Feminism’s basic intent to promote individualism and parity between the sexes).  I have come to see the current work

acting as a sort of primer to educate a younger more dubious audience, to coax them to see things more critically and

examine their choices without feeling external pressures to conform to ill-fitting or outdated mores.