Projects

In the series Transitions, I explore themes of family and memory, placing emphasis on the home. Using photographs and other media, I explore themes of domesticity, family heirlooms, loss, and the link between our possessions and our identities.

Large color photographs of domestic objects such as lamps, lipsticks, and the tops of dressers monumentalize tiny details of the everyday. Other images focus on my activities within the space, whether sorting or sitting with my heirlooms. Several objects reoccur within the images, including quilts, photographs, and mirrors, referencing deeper themes of the home: tradition and handcraft, the reflection of identity, and the passage of time.

Included with these images are small assemblaged objects. Using materials found within the domestic space, I create smaller, hand-sized scale houses with objects that reflect on the activities found in the home. Some of the objects are recognizable: a velveteen house is puckered with cuff links. Others are more abstract: a glistening yellow house is made of sculpted Vaseline. These sculptures represent my appropriation of an absent person's collections and treasures into objects that are given a new life.

Within each family are cultural activities, from sewing to cooking to painting and photography. These activities create remnants that can be cherished or despised when traditions are upset in the passage of one generation to the next. The activities within the home are what define it more than its architecture. The object-remnants become the legacy of that family. My work acknowledges this legacy while transforming it into the present.

photos   |   objects   |   drawings