Artist Statement

The act of making art is for me the practice of holism: of allowing the different “parts” of me to merge within, and through me be birthed into the world. I seek to allow my fears, joys, anxieties, thoughts, and inspiration to exist outside of me- to become a creature- allowing an interaction with them I would not otherwise have. (Like many) I am obsessed with the human form- with symbolically meeting myself through creation. Whether the subject is overtly “me” or not, in rendering the human form I am creating in “my image.” Through creating the “other” I am exploring humanity and myself. In doing so I am finding my way through relationship- how am I touching and being touched by those around me- how am I touching and being touched by the Divine?

In my work as a hospital chaplain I have seen first-hand the way in which the “parts” of the body- the blood, the organs, the skin- are simultaneously symbols of life and death, destruction and renewal, crisis and opportunity. Blood figures prominently in my work: blood of the Sacrament, blood of life, blood of birth, blood pumping through our veins, the blood of death. “Blood” is the struggle to contain and bring fourth the overwhelming reality of beauty and pain existing in the world. Hand in hand beauty&brutality, life&death walk as partners. For me the human body exemplifies these enigmatic unions. In calling forth the human form, I am experiencing and exploring life’s paradox through my relationship with self, the other, and the Eternal, as I stumble along.