Much of my work has explored American expectations of “womanhood”, the complexities of nostalgia around some of those histories, and the utilization of objects/materials/processes that may elicit feelings of longing or familiarity. I often undertake extensive research about specific subjects that become much larger projects, such as the “Parlor Project” which explored the waning culture of small neighborhood beauty parlors and their aging clientele, and “Married with Children…Or Not” that satirically examined the expectation that women marry and procreate. The most recent “Human Imprint” project has investigated the roles and contributions of women at historic mining towns in Colorado and their relative invisibility at the turn of the 19th century, a pivotal time in the forming of the American West.
As an artist without allegiance to any particular medium, my process begins with an initial research base that includes print sources, travel to relevant sites, accessing archives, and collecting ephemera to build a solid knowledge base and understanding of histories and contexts. This accumulated knowledge then informs material choices and processes, which have included outcomes as sculptural objects, installations, film and video, photography, works on paper, repurposed found objects, and printmaking processes. I hope to make visible (and in some cases tangible) the histories, voices and stories of women traversing the complex and conflicting expectations they experience living in American culture.
