Artist Statement
My current work speaks to my interest in using identity as a diagnostic tool to explore ideas on feminism, body image, gender politics and gender fluidity, with an infusion of tragicomic humor and ironic naïveté. I often work in a conceptual way, the projects that I undertake are all-encompassing, multimedia and collaborative, revolving around a central character with a performative element.
The Cooking at Home series of videos was inspired in part by Martha Rosler's "Semiotics of the Kitchen", in part by Julia Child, and in part by the comedic stylings of Gilda Radnor. As a parody of the over-saturated genre of the cooking show, the episodic series is also meant to eschew traditional values on painting and art-making in general.
Jenny Dove, my country music singer, believes with all her heart that she can be Loretta Lynn, and although she doesn’t have the pipes or the fame, she establishes a place for herself in the record of time with her carefully curated propaganda. The Jenny Dove exhibit was designed to question what role manufactured memorabilia of individual desire might have in a fine art context increasingly obsessed with the personal narrative.
The Donor Series was initiated by the experience of donating my eggs to a fertility clinic. The application process required me to elaborate upon my physical characteristics as well as the attributes of my personality, and the expository nature of the application led me to wonder by which standards I was being selected. Naturally curious as to what the offspring might look like, I started drawing their portraits, imaginatively melding my DNA with the DNA of the potential father. Translating the drawing to printmaking allowed for an exploration of variations to the original.
My educational background is that of traditional drawing and painting, which I continue to practice, but I was also steeped in dance and performance, and likewise I desire my paintings to be moving and my performances to have the quality of a painting.