Descriptions
Seed Curtain
2008
5 ft x 10 ft
Thread, apple seeds
I created this work in midwinter, when we can just begin to feel spring approaching. I wanted to use seeds as a material because at this time, underground, they are just starting to awaken. A seed, especially an apple seed, is small, quiet, and delicate. It also holds the potential to grow strong and dynamic, and to feed many. The potential held in each seed reflects the potential within each person. I strung them on individual white threads, hanging the threads in a way that recalls rain falling. During the process of finding apple seeds, a network of people began saving and collecting them. During the last week of stringing leading up to the opening, all of the apples were baked into pies, creating a multi-sensory experience during the opening. The pies were symbolic of how we take art into ourselves, how it feeds and nourishes us.
Healing Round
2005
10 ft x 12 ft
Cast aluminum, straw
This piece is made up of 70 life-size cast aluminum butterflies, and straw that I braided into 12 ft long plaits. The piece was created in response to and to better understand a personal experience involving healing. The butterflies, a symbol of change, movement, and gentleness, are installed in a spiraling circle. The braided hay refers to snakes, another symbol of change, as well as pathways or roads either leading up or bringing something down. The golden braids
also allude to Rapunzel’s hair, and the process of making them to the tale of Rumpelstiltskin. Fairy tales exist in an in-between place, where there are human issues but magic comes in. I feel that healing and transformation happen in a similar kind of space.
Pillows and Bowls
2004
Cast iron, cast plaster, wood, water, organic materials
A set of self portraits, I cast the plaster in pillowcases that I laid my head into in different ways, as the plaster set. I installed these cast pillows in a spatial dialogue with white-painted wooden bowls containing milk, eggs, and rice, and iron castings of the wooden bowls containing water. After only a day with water in them, the iron bowls began to rust, and the color red interacted with the reflections of green trees on the surfaces of the small pools. This piece explored relationship of head and hand; of thought/dreams/aesthetics and sleeping/eating/basic human needs.
