Ceramics and Sculpture
Sweet Sentiments (2023), clay, ~ 6 x 8 x 8 in. ea.| Each of these cakes represents one of the first three years of my life. The designs on each cake are inspired by memories from each year; I especially drew inspiration from the clothing I was wearing in my childhood photos. To make the icing accents, I mixed up clay slip until it had a similar consistency to icing and applied the slip using actual cake decorating tools. The bases and lids were hand/coil-built. The lids are removable so that photos and mementos from each year of my life can be stored inside.
Switch (2021), cardboard and acrylic paint, 24.5 x 57.5 x 3.5 in. | I created this to-scale replica of a Nintendo Switch for an assignment in my 3-D foundations course at the University of Kentucky.
Delicate Balance (2021); wood, cardboard, yarn, acrylic paint, mod podge | This piece has two meanings, the first being a reflection of my personality. The outer box represents the side of me that most people see when they first meet me—someone who is very quiet and reserved. I wanted this portion of the piece to be very plain, which is why I opted simply to add the dark wood stain and nothing else. However, the inner box represents the parts of me that you would have to get to know me more to understand--the side of me that is more fun and creative. I chose to extend the yarn parts to wrap around the outer box to show that these parts of me are visible if you look close enough and that they sometimes come through, even to the people who don’t know me that well.
The second meaning relates more to the division between my artistic and academic sides. My high school had a highly competitive environment in both the arts and academics, and I was heavily involved in both. However, I kept those two parts of myself very separate from one another. My school was very STEM-oriented, and students in the STEM program looked down upon art students, which led me to rein in my creative side in my academic classes. However, I would not be the student that I am without my creativity, so the yarn wrapping around the outer box symbolizes how central that aspect of my personality is to holding me together and making me more well-rounded as a student.
Tension (2021); wood, books, scissors, metal-casted calculator, paintbrushes, paint palette, crayons, yarn | This piece is about the way schools and society in general view academic endeavors and achievements as superior to artistic ones, which promotes the idea that a career in the arts is unattainable. I have taken art classes since kindergarten, but until my second semester of college I never even considered majoring in art. In fact, when someone would ask me what I wanted to study in college, my response was typically something along the lines of “I’m not sure yet, but I know it won’t be art.” Despite my love and talent for creating, I had internalized the messages I had been fed for the past thirteen years about careers in STEM or academia being more highly respected than those in the arts, and felt that I needed to go down one of those paths as well. The composition and color choices in my piece are very intentional. I used gold and silver to demonstrate the greater perceived value of academics over the arts. The academic side of the scale is the heavier one, because that side of school has always weighed me down and hindered my art. I chose to elevate the artistic side of the scale and add additional colors with the crayons to symbolize how I have finally decided to pursue the thing that makes me happiest.
Untitled (2021); wood, wire, packaging materials, acrylic paint
Lionhearted (2019); clay, wood, wire, misc. yarn and fabric pieces, makeup mirror, acrylic paint
The Open Window (2017); cardboard, papier maché, hot glue, acrylic paint, and oil pastel; 20 x 17 x 9.5 in. | This piece was completed for an assignment in a high school design class. We were tasked with constructing a 3-D representation of a piece by a famous artist, effectively turning a 2-D artwork into a sculpture with dimension and depth. My sculpture was based on Matisse’s The Open Window.