Statement

In my practice, I use found and non-art materials to examine notions of family history, place, and labor. The tastes, perspectives and values evident in my artwork are indicative of the cultural and familial context of my Midwestern upbringing. I trace this heritage from past to present, producing a nonlinear compendium of material, aesthetics, signifiers and stories. Through this process, my work bridges personal narrative with broader cultural histories, creating connections between individual and collective experience.

During the past two decades, my practice has arrived at and lingered upon a variety of specific stories and places, from my father’s experiences in foundry work and home building, my mother’s career in horticulture, and my ancestral connections to factory and farm work, to the imprint that regionally specific kinds of labor have had on the landscape in southeast Michigan, Chicago, and northwest Indiana. For me, material carries as potent a narrative as one’s memories do, and I underscore this concept through my use of media sourced from the site of the stories.