Artist Statement

My work for this exhibit asks us to consider the weight of our presence on other lives by bringing awareness to the perceptions of wild animals that live in and around the margins of the urban world. I handbuild each animal in clay through the method of hollow building, coil by coil. I take care to articulate their sense of apprehension and vigilance in the form of stance and gaze. While consciously shaping anatomically believable bodies, I construct interior structures that unfold into multiple cavities to represent the world of animal hollows and burrows that is normally hidden from human view. To finish each sculpture, I surface with a thin, clay-based material called terra sigillata, imbuing each animal with color and nuance, while maintaining an earthen perspective.