Artist’s Statement
In my art my feminist awareness is expressed in issues around the body. It is here in this most vivid and personal place that we learn gender construction. Examining this in my art makes the concepts very tangible and opens my reflections on gender to intersectional feminism.
My reflections then lead me to consider where life and death intersect for this body. Just as there is a continuum of gender, existence, too, is on a continuum from birth to death. Through my art, I strive to integrate my death into my life, make my dying part of my living.
These beliefs need a container for expression. It is important that they manifest in materials of a three-dimensional nature. Hand papermaking, letterpress printing, and printmaking are the foundation of my artists’ books, and through typography, image, and the written word I translate my artistic concerns into art. The installations and sculpture hold space, and so create a spiritual as well as conceptual ritual place for the living and the dead. I choose the canvas of textiles as the container for the body. My clothes are the container for my living; my shrouds are the container for my dying.