Artist Statement

Moving from one coast of the states to the other provided the catalyst needed for me to begin piecing together the objects and process that formed my identity including its dichotomy of masculinity and femininity.  Being apart from my close-knit family and community, I began to reflect on my identity as a woman largely influenced culturally by my American, rural, blue-collar upbringing.  If one can imagine being raised by Johnny Cash himself.

Many families have traditions attached to domestic objects.  Two objects of tradition in my family are photographs compiled over the years and afghans crocheted by my maternal grandmother.  Through these items I have begun the process of exploring how my identity has formed. 

In the family photographs I find images of relatives, friends, homes, places, and activities that trigger memories through which I am able to observe changes.  Theses images also allowed me to reflect on my life as a woman. The photographs compare and contrast the feminine and masculine sides of my youth, such as the ceramic tea set that I received for Christmas versus the Red Ryder BB guns my older brothers received.

The afghans stand, for me, as a symbol of a woman’s work and repetitive daily activity in a rural upbringing. They are an active household item that each family member uses in different ways, just as the colors and patterns in each afghan are different.  I re-taught myself how to crochet years after barely knowing how in the first place. I find myself again within a dichotomy; creation of a feminine craft in a masculine settings.

All of my recent work represents family beginning with my grandmother who made the afghans, my mother and brothers, who collected the afghans and took many of the early photographs, and myself.  It is through the systematic art of crocheting, the recording of oral history, video, and the installation of photographs and objects that the process of a personal narrative and memories is revealed.