My artwork focuses on gender, memory and femininity and the ways these aspects influence our identity. Memories influence how we perceive ourselves in regards to our past. That past is what we grow and learn from and those that raised us and participated in those memories in part. My life includes very different types of women, my memories of them, and what they taught me carry through into my actions and thoughts as an adult. These women had different education backgrounds, religious outlooks, political beliefs, and various ideas of the roles of women. This submersion in diverse femininity created a life long interest in what type of women I think I should be versus the type of women I actually am and how the memories of those lessons still affect me today.

I deal with imagery and accessories to create memory montages. These montages are created by using fabrics and materials that are quintessential parts of femininity created through past experiences and our culture’s media. These materials are influenced from dresses I remember from the first day of school or the disidance created from an awkward sexual experience vs. what I expected. I use ceramics wheel thrown cone 10 Reduction method as my base. The plates offer up my memories as the things we must go through to grow up. I use slip casted forms as well fired to cone 6. I leave the mold lines in and often use non traditional surfaces on the pieces to depict the commonness of these struggles and yet mostly obscured or hidden in public the scares and trails we all must go through. I hope my work creates a starting point for discussion about the messiness of choosing who we are as we age.

 I use memories as a starting point for my work. I reflect on how I felt versus what I had been told to feel. What I was wearing and how I thought I looked versus what others were wearing and how they acted is the information I use to create sensory-scapes of my influences, history, and adult identity.