Artist’s Statement

For a while I have had an interest in bone; its many forms, its textural quality, its significance in our bodies and throughout cultures. Skeletons and teeth are things that I have doodled for a long time, on assignments and tables and in the spare real estate of my sketchbooks. I’m not quite sure where the motivation comes from, but I felt that I needed to truly explore this. In a series of small drawings, I found that animal skulls, particularly those of domestic animals, really speak. Aside from the obvious life and death, there’s ideas of powerlessness, lack of control. These are creatures that we have bred for countless generations to be entirely at our whim, without fight. Sometimes the position of the skull and the things around it change the feeling. A suit almost turns it into its opposite, a figure with power. Color or the lack thereof, clean edges or a messy border, all of this holds significance and changes a piece thematically. The unexpected outcome, for me, was scale. Quite frankly, working big scared the shit out of me, I didn’t know what I was doing. But that forced me to figure out what I was doing, to find solutions, cut corners. This process was rewarding and therapeutic. I can’t wait to do more.