As human beings, each of us is a paradox. We are selfish and nurturing, we are lonely and social, we are individuals and we are one. Finding a way out of this diametric opposition would be to stop being human. And yet, we are constantly searching for a balance. The struggle to accept this inherent contradiction is at the core of everything I make.

We are social. We have been adorning our bodies with every material imaginable for as long as we've spoken to each other. Body adornment is, in fact, a way of speaking to the people around us, telling them about ourselves and connecting on a visual level. I don't believe the communication should be restricted, so I use materials that are not traditionally associated with jewelry, such as clay and fiber. With these materials, I create pieces that speak — some in a shout, some in a whisper — for the person who wears them.

We are nurturing. We are deeply affected by our memories and thus shaped distinctly by our pasts. The ways in which we were nurtured and treated when we were young cannot be ignored as adults. I use as many materials and techniques I can get my hands on — fabricating metal, casting glass, slip casting porcelain, even employing scents and smells — to construct evocative objects in the form of houses. Through the making, I am working through the concepts of home and nostalgia and memory as a way of relating to my own past and understanding how it affects me as an adult.

We are individuals. We resent each other, while we simultaneously wish to belong. We hurt each other, we love each other, we work in groups despite the fact that we are alone in our own thoughts. Using a variety of different textures and tones of clay, I build groupings and collections in order to investigate the human conundrum. I'm striving to create a balance among the individual bits of clay. Maybe through the exploration, I can find an answer and a satisfaction with my own place among many.