2016
Ink and digital
This animation is very much inspired by motivational posters I saw in school growing up. The one downside to those posters that I noticed was how frequently technology would be belittled. I wanted to create something that would encourage others to not only read, but to also be creative and use all of the resources at their disposal to achieve their goals.
2022
Knitted wire, glazed stoneware
TW/CW: Mention of sexual assault, abuse, human rights violations.
Unfortunately I have been sexually and emotionally abused multiple times in my life. I have felt very distant from my body and reviled it because of internalized fat phobia and my experiences of assault. After I was raped, I knew that I wanted to make art about this in order to help process the trauma I had experienced and remind myself that it is ok to not be ok, that it is always more than ok to cry. That it is ok to feel triggered and brought back to that moment of trauma. I made this sculpture as a reminder that it is ok to be feeling and processing all of those things, it is ok to be a work in progress.
While I was making this, Roe v. Wade was overturned in the United States, revoking rights defending bodily autonomy for so many people in the country. Continuing to work on this piece gave me permission to feel and reclaim the rage, frustration, betrayal, and sadness that the ruling and my experiences caused me to initially compartmentalize.
2022
Glazed stoneware
Working on this piece really helped me to focus on mindfulness by giving my brain a chance to lean into details of ceramic work like meticulous underglaze painting, trimming, and throwing a larger vessel. When I focus on the minutiae of each task in ceramics, this distracts my brain and allows for me to ground myself through the tactile and immediate nature of working with clay. I find I focus and linger on moment to moment decisions in crafting rather than overly self critical thoughts.
Historically, I would linger on the concept of a piece for so long that I would forget to find meaning in the making. This is not the case in my ceramics practice: the meditative nature of throwing, trimming, and decorating really resonates with me.
2022
Digital
TW/CW: death
With this piece, I very specifically wanted to see if I could illustrate the remembrance of grief, specifically when a thought takes a person back to an older feeling of grief. I really enjoy the challenge of illustrating abstract mental processes, and creating this piece specifically gave me a way of processing and coping with the grief of losing multiple loved ones, rather than immediately pushing it away or compartmentalize it.
2022
Glazed stoneware
One of my favorite aspects of ceramics as a medium is the inherent challenge of relinquishing control and letting go. This is a piece where I wanted to push myself to practice letting go of more control and perfectionism by experimenting with wax resist and trusting the overglaze to follow my guidelines rather than proceeding with an extensive underglaze process. Though the meaning comes across more for me in the process, the result of this cup almost seems to say to me “see? Look what happens when you go outside of your comfort zone!”
2022
Digital
The title of this piece comes from how, at a doctor’s appointment when I was asked, “Why have you come in to consult on taking [testosterone]?” I responded with “Sometimes my meat suit doesn’t fit right,” I answered that way and laughed when I did because my experience of gender dysphoria is as jarring, dissociative, and sometimes goofy as that statement is.
The idea for this piece had been kicking around for some time before I finally sat down and made it. It took a shift from creating exclusively for others to including and centering myself in my practice in order to create pieces that help me process and work through my feelings and experiences.
2022
Glazed stoneware
This piece, along with Bubble, was inspired by organic forms and the tactility of feeling a natural texture in hand as a mug is held. Here I was particularly inspired by veins and seaweed; lining the facets of each cut with underglaze as the lines disappear into the translucency of the glaze was my goal. Very frequently I put pressure on myself to be perfect when I throw, so it seemed natural to let go and enjoy elaborately carving an irregular exterior for this mug.
2021
Digital
When I was organizing with Providence Democratic Socialists of America, we were working to encourage Rhode Island state legislators to support affordable Medicare for All programs at the state and national level. In this process, we needed a campaign logo. I incorporated the rose of DSA’s logo into a bouquet of roses in order to symbolize the strength of collective organizing and communities coming together to bring affordable, accessible healthcare to the people.
For the production of We Go Round and Round, I wanted to create a vibrant, fun image of people from a variety of different backgrounds and gender expressions with a whimsical ink drawing and a bespoke typography treatment. I did this in order to emphasize the variety of different vignettes within the show, but also to underscore joy and how it is not just for one given couple or community of people. It’s an inclusive, broad thing that everyone should feel welcome to.
2012
Tempera on paper
This is a painting on identity loss and self love that aims to illustrate the suspension between childhood and adulthood that is adolescence. For a long period of time in my practice, I did away with creating more symbolic work like this in lieu of pieces that may be more easily read by the viewer. My work became all consumed by the concern of what others thought, until I wasn’t creating for myself anymore. I wasn’t making what I wanted and needed to create. This piece has always inspired me to unpick internalized societal ideals of what my work “should” be like. It reminds me that in order to find my way back to myself in my work, I needed to be unabashedly me.
2022
Glazed stoneware
Much like In the Weeds, this is another piece that was inspired by an aquatic, organic motif. The bottom is carved out in order to evoke bubbles, but also to create a pleasant sense of tactility and texture for the holder. While it’s pleasant and soothing for me to create these textures, I also want to share that experience with others by applying the texture to a vessel that is held and used.
2017
Ink and digital
When I was creating this graphic, I was most inspired by astronomy, constellations, and Shakespeare’s comparison of passion and love to fire. I strove to create a graphic that captured the mythic nature of the story while also distancing it from traditional gender norms, thus making the narrative more accessible and relatable to a wider audience. My overarching goal in doing this was to show that love is for everyone by telling the story of two celestial bodies who, even after death, are still in each other’s orbit.
