Artist Statement

I have long been fascinated with the sewing machine, both as a symbol of domestic labor and as a tool for my art. In Boundless Garden, my work combines the manual techniques of oil painting and ceramics with the automatic movements of the sewing machine. By directly stitching into an unstretched canvas with mixed medium collages, I create robust and visceral textures that are reminiscent of fluids in an organism. The machine's needle works as an apparatus, responding to my emotional energy. In contrast to the technical aesthetics of abstraction, my work emphasizes experimentation and balances elements of control and spontaneity.

I am inspired by Betty Woodman, whose hybrid sculptures developed a formal yet playful vocabulary that questioned preconceptions of ceramic works as "crafts." Some other inspirations include the MFA's recent exhibit Fabric of a Nation and quilt artist Mary Fifield Adams, both of which contain a sensory intensity that I find is unique to textiles and tactile art. I draw from their techniques of careful embroidery, imbuing each image I create with its own symbolic meaning. Flowers, for me, are symbols of life as well as memento mori––a reminder of life's fragility and impermanence.

I have been experimenting with drawings, paintings, and sculptures, and I am increasingly attracted to the texture of ceramics. In Boundless Garden, I have introduced three-dimensional works, putting sculptures in conversation with my 2D mixed media pieces. These sculptures, for me, are preliminary sketches in three dimensions. It is easier for me to understand the forms and shapes in 3D, to start from something embodied and alive and to distill this life force into my final 2D work. While my sculptures are in support of my painting work, I am excited to see where this experimentation takes me.

My works are personal homages to needle works, once considered to be a form of low art and "women's work." In conversation with this tradition of domestic artistry, Boundless Garden provides a new reading of women's low and handmade works, which have historically been relegated to the domestic realm. By embracing the decorative and domestic labor of needle work in a transgressive way, my work can expand our understanding of womanhood.