I long to encapsulate pieces of my life in objects. My memories have material weight, connected to objects I own, or once owned. Every bottlecap, every handwritten letter, every quilted blanket is precious. Fascinated with the concept of relics, I find my work to revolve around items charged with individualized meaning, and the retention of those items within the mind. Around them I build an interior, one as equally related to my memory. I use that crafted interior as a stage to enact a psychic drama with my objects; one of twisted humor, nostalgia, and trauma.
My process lends itself to chance as much as methodical technique. Though the arrangement of imagery is preplanned, the source images are pulled from different media (magazine, newspaper, etc.) and vary in their appearance as they are found, surrendering some autonomy in the creative process. In this way, they become like found objects, as well as vessels for memory. The inclusion of textured and three-dimensional media is meant to encroach onto the viewer’s plane, further pulling them into the middle of these messy scenes.
In creating these object-laden scenes, my intentions may seem a self-motivated investigation of my own material attachment. Yet I believe that I present an imagined environment where others can project their own narratives onto these collected items, these mental relics.
