ARTIST STATEMENT

My works reflects the joys and the anxieties, the play and hard work, the surprises and drudgery of birthing and parenting.

I like to use fun and playful materials in a process of relentless and meticulous repetition. I’ve created painstakingly elaborate installations from everyday items that evoke how the simplest object can simultaneously produce bliss and mind-numbing frustration. When my first son was a pre-schooler in Los Angeles, the “goodie bags” of almost every young boy’s birthday party featured little toy cars. Both expected and cherished, these cars became a kind of currency among his friends. In “TRAFFIC”, I proclaim their exasperating ubiquity in our lives and their connection to the fundamental challenge of living in LA, while celebrating their flash and color as appreciated by a child.

I like to play with space and physical action, building something big out of small objects. In “PINATA”, a wondrous but indescribable creature morphs from a collection of bright Post-It Notes. A similarly playful and meticulous technique supports “ACE AGE” where copious tiny objects – dinosaurs – simulate a kaleidoscopic stampede.

Motherhood is rarely described as fluid, yet bodily fluids are central to the process of birthing and raising a baby. In “DISSONANCE”, “FORCE OF NATURE”, “DROPS” and “SWARM OF JOY” I use red yarn to represent the fluidity of both the physical and emotional connection between mother and child. Like a blood vessel or a neural pathway, the yarn connects and feeds growth; it’s both deceptively strong and fundamentally fragile. I think of these works as displaying the interplay between the physical and the emotional worlds - an eternal tug-of-war, where a tiny thread can wield tremendous force.

Family life originates in delights but quickly evolves into a series of routines. The repetition overwhelms but also defines. My family consumes a case of Pellegrino a month. Shopping for, serving, and ultimately disposing of all these bottles are the minutiae of our lives. Yet they are also a form of distinction, of characterization of our unique family. In “PELLEGRINATION”, the bottles themselves are recognized as both a source of life, a reminder of daily routine, and a unique object.

In my drawings, I like to create something extravagant out of repeated tiny details and dramatic colors. I start with a story told through an elaborate outline drawn in black pen. I then use gel pen to convert these simple tracings into radiant shapes. This process reflects the darker story of personal struggles that we tend to keep to ourselves and of a bright picture of a happy, flawless life we project to the world.

Singularly, everyday objects may be small or large, lovely or plain, striking or unexceptional. But in volume – the volume generated by a lifetime of routines – they resemble the ambiguities of motherhood itself. These seemingly unlimited repetitions are like the endless chores and travails of parenting: staggering small burdens that somehow produce something unique and beautiful.