Artist Statement

My inner world is a state of negotiations between opposites such as past and future, rationality and intuition, and chaos and order. However, something that remains constant is my highly tactile process for making. The feeling of holding and transforming physical materials is essential to my creative practice. I believe that meaning is created through the act of doing. The act of drawing patterns, the act of chiseling wood, the act of hammering through a surface is meaningful because I do it.

Through the pairing of order and chaos in senseless patterns, I represent opposites, double meanings, and dual possibilities. Doors hold multiple significances as pathways/barriers, entrances/exits, choices/limitations, etc. I love the dual symbolism embedded in these structures, as it is a great way to explore aspects of my own identity.

I think a lot about contradictions, things that shouldn’t exist simultaneously, and yet do. One contradiction that I see in my own life is the presence of my intuitive, creative side and my interest in mathematics and strict logic. In creating my doors, I utilize multiple methods of making. Sometimes I begin transforming a door without knowing where I’m headed, other times I have detailed sketches drawn out in advance.

The ways I transform these doors reflect my interests in architecture, history, and geometry. With each door, I also draw on my lived experiences. Some are literal moments, like the memory of my childhood home being demolished, or are abstract thoughts I wrestle with, such as trying to make sense of the absurd. These discarded and repurposed doors also contain histories of their own which tie into my interactions with the world around me. I am drawn to both the architectural utility of doors and the mystery of what lies beyond. Through this medium, I create a forest filled with contradiction, deconstruction, and self-exploration in an attempt to make sense of my internal and external worlds.