Artist Statement

My artwork captures the angst of our challenging times, an era of socio-political and cultural challenges, an era marked by speed and disposability, an anti-human period of wars, violence, weather control, loss of freedom, propaganda, censorship, fake news, and experimentation on unsuspecting humans, a time when governments all over the world are leveraging technology to control the people. I create this work to wake people up, to prevent indifference, to inspire empathy and compassion for human life.

Discarded is my medium. It is the second skin, an extension of the self. It is porous, tactile, pliable, fragile, and emotional just like human skin; it is susceptible to harm and manipulation, just like human beings are. It evokes discarded humanity. I give second chances, new life, and a fresh start to the worn, the torn, the broken, the mistreated, the abandoned, the unwanted, the devalued, the disposable, and to myself. I see the untapped potential and intrinsic worth of all human beings.

My artistic process is a material expression of the deconstruction, reconstruction, and transformation we are witnessing in our society. I transform the old into something new. I dismantle the fabric of the world and piece it together differently. I assemble, recombine, and join disparate pieces of clothing to create a harmonious new whole. I unite pieces of many colors, patterns, textures, and histories. I commingle and interweave the clothing and energy of many others with my own. My work is a metaphor for we are one, all of us members of the human family. When we are intertwined and woven together we are stronger, more colorful, and more resilient.

I invite the viewer to pause and appreciate the beauty of slowly handmade textiles. My emotional narrative portraits are created lovingly and laboriously through processes of hand cutting, hand stitching, hand hooking, hand embroidery, collage, crochet, and soft sculpture. This artwork raises awareness of the significance of human creativity in a time when artificial intelligence and robotization are gradually replacing work by humans. Artwork created with the human hand and human feelings can hold multiple dimensions of truth that AI can never fathom. It reminds us that creativity is a powerful act of resistance, that what may seem delicate is in fact strong, and that the threads that bind us are a testament to our shared humanity.