ARTIST STATEMENT

I am interested in the transformation and re-invention of a diverse range of forms that interest me. Most often my sources come from the worlds of applied arts (clothing structures, furniture, utilitarian objects and vernacular industrial architecture). The structure of clothing forms has continuously informed my work, serving as a vehicle for exploring their functional and sociological roles and the influence of the design and architecture of various cultures and periods in history.

All of my sculptures begin with specific references. The form, developed and transformed through revised drawings, may be initially informed by a child's bib, but at the same time, influenced by an Art Deco architectural detail, thereby resulting in a variety of readings. This hybrid, distilled form is finally directed by my means of construction and choice of materials. The result is an abstracted version, but often retaining a suggestion or essence of the initial source.

Architecture has had a strong influence on my work. When looking at architecture, I isolate a section of a building (a chimney, a window, a roof shape) that interests me. In the same way, I concentrate on a particular section or detail of clothing (a turn of a collar; the shape of a sleeve). I am interested in the seamless shifting from body to architectural form in the melding of the wearable with the structural un-wearable.

A parallel interest has been the play between two and three-dimensional space. Starting with my early cardboard constructions, I have been interested in applying the same tricks of pictorial illusion that I use to create volume in my drawings, to actual space (oblique parallel angles, asymmetrical orientation). As a result, the opposite happens: the three dimensional version becomes flattened. Over the years, I have continued to apply this system with selected sculptures because it presents complexities of construction that challenge me, and the asymmetrical skewed angles allow for unplanned surprises and contradictions. For example, a form may refer to a functional object but the skewed angles deny its literal interpretation.

My wide selection of materials (wood, perforated metal, linoleum, fabrics) reflects my interest in the coexistence of the industrial/architectonic and domestic worlds. My means for assembling elements (stitching, wrapping, interlocking, riveting) allows for the process to become visually apparent and an integral part of the form and structure. Details of ornamentation are direct results of the structure and reflect the inherent properties of the material used in each individual sculpture.

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