My formal training is in architecture and through this I have become interested in how people interact with the built environment. My art work developed therefore as a means of formally addressing these interactions and relationships. The work I create is predominantly site specific and developed as an evaluation of an architectural structure or environment in terms of its history, its uses, and how the past relates to its current state. Additionally I often find my work dealing with the passage of time and its effects on the built environment as well as our own bodies and the parallels between the two. I seek to draw attention to invisible realities associated with a space and often times my installations can be considered Interventionist in their intent to engender dialogue about these relationships. Much of my work has been figurative but this is often not a conscious choice from the outset, it simply results from my analysis of architecture and space in relationship to the body. Thus far all of my public projects have been temporary installations due mainly to site restrictions; however I am interested in issues of impermanence in architecture which the temporary nature of these projects addresses.
Many of my public projects to date have been installed in places where I was a member of the community actively inhabiting the space and therefore had a personal relationship and experience with the site. My first large scale public project was a temporary installation on the exterior wall of the Davis Museum in Wellesley, MA. This piece came about as I explored the norms in 20th century museum architecture and juxtaposed these with the historical relationship between women and museums. For the installation Shifted Axis in the Storke Plaza at UCSB I was interested in how this space had radically altered its usage over time, and also what the architectural style of the plaza suggests to those who interact with the space. Collaboration has been a major component in many of my public projects as I often work in multiples creating a human grid within a built environment.
I can see the influence of several artists in my work, Magdalena Abakanowicz's casting techniques and use of the figure, Eva Hesse's humanization of minimalism which I see my work doing in the architectural sphere. My interest in lighting and scale is influenced by the architecture of Filippo Brunelleschi, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano and Richard Neutra.
