Artist's statement

My sculptural combinations of clay, fiber, and found objects attempt to represent the graceful and humorous aspects of neurotic behavior, both within the self and in relationships. I am obsessed with the conflict between what is wanted and what is needed, both on a cultural and personal level, and by applying labor-intensive processes like crocheting and carving onto symbolic clay implements and impressions, I make the dysfunctional manifest. If I can recognize, appreciate, and laugh at my mixed-up, compulsive attempts to obtain pleasure and my ambivalent attitudes toward my body, maybe I can better understand this dichotomy of the pacifier and the gratifier.