I use sculptural portraiture as a canvas to explore personal myth and cultural metamorphosis. I sew the surface of my pieces because the patchwork of textile recreates a human skin that can be pierced, embedded, dyed and stitched.  Each of my pieces toe the line between a degraded, derivative form of the original and a new empowered avatar. The pearls that encrust their eyes are both disturbing and enchanting. They don a kind of growing natural armor of barnacles and coral.  Like the Classical Greek figures preserved in museums with missing limbs, the sea-change of time has made their fissures and ragged stumps into beautiful attributes. The rare experience of surviving the ages is treasured.

This slow consumption and transformation of an icon into an ecosystem is a reflection of my anxiety about living in the modern world. In these pieces I depict my feelings of being consumed by misogyny, capitalism, my own ambition and constant self-examination.  Additionally, the work depicts an inevitable future of rising tides in the age of global warming. Whether it is  horizontal lines and gradients be seen as flood-lines inland or high-tide lines on the coast, they both evoke the same claustrophobic unease of facing diminishing dry land.

Mother of Pearl
Mixed-media sculpture
32in x 24in x 11in
2016

Other pieces in this series: