Artist's Statement - Marriage Equality Series, 2010

This series blends the traditionally female craft of cross stitch with the traditionally male craft of woodworking, then adds found and re-cycled objects to create wall hung sculptures with a contemporary message about marriage equality.  When the anti-gay backlash was used during the 2004 election to motivate the conservative right, I knew it was time to explore a new direction with my work.  I felt outrage, but I also wanted to find ways to turn the anger into something productive.  I began designing my own cross stitch "samplers", but with a decidedly different meaning.

Some of the works compare assertions made in the past about interracial marriage with statements made more recently about same sex marriage.  Others seek to highlight the inherent ironies in many of the statements made in the recent debates on gay marriage.  Many use images of state birds and flowers as symbols for those states involved.  My intent is to draw people into the work with the hope that the words will generate a more healthy debate about these issues.

Artist's Statement, 2005

My creative process consists primarily of three parts.  First, I collect found objects.  I call them "treasures".  It can be anything put in my path - on walks or hikes; in the country or the city.  I find them myself or they are gifts from friends and family.  They may be bone, glass, stone, metal or plastic, but wood is my primary material, either natural branches, roots or parts of old furniture.

Next, I combine these items in ways that I feel give them new life.  I look for connections between them.  A twist in a root may suggest a torso with hip twisted and I see a dancer.  A turned wood spindle placed next to a branch may suggest a couple in a tender embrace.  The joint at the end of a bone reflects the joint at the end of a tree branch and they call out to be shown together.  In these treasured objects I see a remarkable amount of repeated shapes and gestures.  The repetitions cross boundaries between species and elements.  I realize as humans we have a tendency to anthropomorphize things, but I feel this process is more than just that.  I think I am looking for connections that say "We are all one.  We are part of the Universal Consciousness."  I don't mean to sound pretentious, but I believe that until we as a species really "get" this, we will never find peace.

Finally, when these objects have found a combination that brings them back to life, I carefully and lovingly clean, assemble, oil and polish as necessary to make them whole.  I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.