These two works are sisters. There cannot be one without the other. We see the eye, experiencing the emotion, and next to it lies the emotion itself. These pieces work in tandem to bring visuals to an experience that is otherwise only mental or thought through. I wanted to create a visual depiction of grief that had accuracy and showed how this primal emotion feels in the moment.

Foam board, Joint compound, glue, acrylic paint, masking tape, upholstery needles, dog speaking button, miniature lights, resin, wood, spray foam

An overactive amygdala from PTSD can cause sufferers to cry uncontrollably from many different stimuli and reminders of past trauma. This work is supposed to drive empathy for those who suffer from this condition, forcing the audience to cry along with the sufferer. You can walk up and poke this eye, perpetuating a cycle of pain. Pain and trauma is something that is passed back and forth. We hurt people and people can hurt us.

An excerpt from my notes on experiencing trauma

“I was constantly on high alert, wishing I could turn my brain off. Seeing things speaking to me that weren’t actually there. Every breath I took was short and sharp. I felt like I was screaming from the inside out. I felt terrified I would be like this forever. Thinking I was dying, to feel like this and not be dying didn’t make sense. What I hadn’t realized is that my entire identity was becoming fractured. Everything I had known to be true was crumbling in front of me.”

2023, polyvinyl chloride, stainless steel

2024, polyvinyl chloride, stainless steel. message for pricing.

2021, polyvinyl chloride, stainless steel

Expressing yourself is difficult. Sometimes when we try to connect with others we mask and say foolish things. This shows what it’s like to be faced with yourself, struggling to change, putting yourself in the corner, feeling in trouble by the parent inside.

Wool, Cotton, Monks cloth

Marion is a work made from plaster and acrylic and is 4.25 in x 2 in size. It represents the disintegration of a cherished memory. I chose cupped hands and added the combination of a cloud shaped like a brain that I made from plastilina clay as my form.  Finding the hand form provoked a memory of playing with my grandmother’s hands in church as a child. I found difficulty in starting the mold making process, that may have been in my understanding what would be a functional shape to mold. It caused my forms fingers to break, this breakage ended up informing my work and reminded me that every time I look back on that memory, it feels a little less vibrant and complete.

 It took several days to refine the pieces and carve clouds into the downspout. I then destroyed two of the hands, one more than the other to show the disintegration over time. I painted the hands white to represent a classical ideal, I chose to do the tops of the clouds blue and white, and I painted a sunset under each one to represent the beauty I found in the memory but it also showed that its now in the past.

2022, porcelain, unglazed.