This body of work incorporates various forms of carved and modeled sculpture to challenge the ways in which we, as consumers, engage with three dimensional art. By examining the relationship between forms of sensation and internal perception, I strive to draw you away from reliance on visual stimuli, into a multisensory artistic experience. Sculptural wooden boxes conceal four figurative works from the eyes, inviting you to experience them strictly through tactile sensation.

Combining the mediums of ceramic, soapstone, aluminum, and wood with techniques of carving, modeling, and manufacturing, the work creates a cohesive exploration of my relationship with sculptural practice. The concealed works tell the story of my engagement with the discipline from its genesis in the death of my father to its role as a continued form of mindful practice in my life. Themes of grief, learning, and recovery reside in the concealed forms, while the boxes serve to shield the vulnerability that is shared in the work. Serving as a metaphor for my exploration of sculpture as a tool for recovery, the counterbalancing abstract vessel references the exploratory swimming patterns of my pet African Dwarf Frogs. Its rhythmic finger-like protrusions recall the tactile intimacy of clay while directly mapping the cautious wandering of these aquatic frogs as they, like myself, grasp out for refuge in a landscape of uncertainty. This form is adorned with a wild clay glaze, harvested from a creek-bed near my father’s grave and slowly processed over the course of two years, manifesting the transformative role of art making in the grieving process into physical form. Uncovering the concealed narrative requires your direct input, as you must physically investigate, manipulate, and grasp the work, irreversibly changing it through the gradual addition of oils and dirt. Doing so, I invite you to reflect the intrinsic co-creative role of the audience in the art making process.

Studying both Psychology and Fine Art as a route to Clinical Art Therapy, I am interested in the links between neurological processes and the creation and consumption of art. Sensation (the physical process of receiving visual, tactile, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory information through sense organs) and perception (the subjective categorization of sensory information into a unique cognitive map) lie at the heart of the artistic experience. Together, we explore how we have limited the consumption of art to strictly visual sensation, and how tactile sensation can be a powerful tool for connection and understanding.