THREADS
2023-present
During the pandemic, I began recreating patterns from my living room textiles by firing glass seed beads onto enameled copper forms as a way to mark the moment and eat up time. I am interested in the fact that the textiles are markers of culture and personal history, but also very prone and fragile. By recreating them with glass and metal, the material is made permanent, an effort to save what will be lost. The Threads Project involves working with community members and friends who are first generation American immigrants to Delaware County, Indiana and creating an artwork based on their own personal textiles as a method for honoring the participants roots and culture. My goal is for the participants to feel that their presence here is valued, while honoring their heritage and stories. I aim to create approximately 30 pieces from a diverse group of community members for an exhibition in Indianapolis, Muncie, and then expand to more national venues, as well as create a printed catalog of the work to gift back to the participants. This work is being supported by a DeHaan Artist of Distinction award from the Indianapolis Arts Council and the Ball State University Sponsored Projects Administration.
2023-present
During the pandemic, I began recreating patterns from my living room textiles by firing glass seed beads onto enameled copper forms as a way to mark the moment and eat up time. I am interested in the fact that the textiles are markers of culture and personal history, but also very prone and fragile. By recreating them with glass and metal, the material is made permanent, an effort to save what will be lost. The Threads Project involves working with community members and friends who are first generation American immigrants to Delaware County, Indiana and creating an artwork based on their own personal textiles as a method for honoring the participants roots and culture. My goal is for the participants to feel that their presence here is valued, while honoring their heritage and stories. I aim to create approximately 30 pieces from a diverse group of community members for an exhibition in Indianapolis, Muncie, and then expand to more national venues, as well as create a printed catalog of the work to gift back to the participants. This work is being supported by a DeHaan Artist of Distinction award from the Indianapolis Arts Council and the Ball State University Sponsored Projects Administration.
pictured above:
Amal Makki, left: Yemenese scarf, right: enamel, copper, glass seed beads, 6" x 6" x 3", 2024
Remzija Selimovic, left: Bosnian crocheted pin commemorating the Srebrenica genocide, right: enamel, copper, glass seed beads, 6" x 6" x 3", 2023
Photo Credits: Mark Sawrie
Amal Makki, left: Yemenese scarf, right: enamel, copper, glass seed beads, 6" x 6" x 3", 2024
Remzija Selimovic, left: Bosnian crocheted pin commemorating the Srebrenica genocide, right: enamel, copper, glass seed beads, 6" x 6" x 3", 2023
Photo Credits: Mark Sawrie
METAL SPINNING TRAINING - MUNCIE METAL SPINNING COMPANY
July 2020 - January 2021
With the support of a grant from Ball State University's Aspire program, I have been training with Muncie Metal Spinning Company to learn the process of metal spinning as a way to incorporate this process into my own studio process, as well as incorporate it into my teaching curriculum. Metal spinning is an industrial process by which a disc a metal is rotated at high speed and formed against a steel or wooden tool and is radially symmetrical.
July 2020 - January 2021
With the support of a grant from Ball State University's Aspire program, I have been training with Muncie Metal Spinning Company to learn the process of metal spinning as a way to incorporate this process into my own studio process, as well as incorporate it into my teaching curriculum. Metal spinning is an industrial process by which a disc a metal is rotated at high speed and formed against a steel or wooden tool and is radially symmetrical.
FICTITIOUS FLORA - RACINE ART MUSEUM
August 2016 - July 2017
Working within a palette of pastels, pinks and baby blues, this work questions our culture’s need to codify objects according to gender. The large enamel panels are graphic renderings of handguns in a radial design. Referencing a floral arrangement or mandala, it plays with the viewer’s interpretation by recalling something that is both a symbol of aggression and something that is ornamental and beautiful. The flower and handgun became a motif used throughout the installation.
Installed for one calendar year, with a change to the installation at the mid-point, this work is an extension of a larger body of work, that has encompassed sculptures, jewelry, and wall work. The series combines flower/botanical forms with fragments of the human body in order to address the narrative of human life cycles: growth, metamorphosis, aging, death. These human/plant hybrids are large, voluptuous, headless, and armless. The flower forms become a negation, a censoring or denial of what lies beneath. These anthropomorphic beings are at once, powerful and powerless, beautiful and absurd, inflated, and amputated.
August 2016 - July 2017
Working within a palette of pastels, pinks and baby blues, this work questions our culture’s need to codify objects according to gender. The large enamel panels are graphic renderings of handguns in a radial design. Referencing a floral arrangement or mandala, it plays with the viewer’s interpretation by recalling something that is both a symbol of aggression and something that is ornamental and beautiful. The flower and handgun became a motif used throughout the installation.
Installed for one calendar year, with a change to the installation at the mid-point, this work is an extension of a larger body of work, that has encompassed sculptures, jewelry, and wall work. The series combines flower/botanical forms with fragments of the human body in order to address the narrative of human life cycles: growth, metamorphosis, aging, death. These human/plant hybrids are large, voluptuous, headless, and armless. The flower forms become a negation, a censoring or denial of what lies beneath. These anthropomorphic beings are at once, powerful and powerless, beautiful and absurd, inflated, and amputated.
KOHLER ARTS / INDUSTRY RESIDENCY
Pottery: August - September, 2014 + Iron/ Enamel: January - March 2002
I was awarded a residency through the John Michael Kohler Arts Center to work for two-months in order to learn the process of slip-casting porcelain and mold-making. This time, working alongside the factory technicians and residency support staff, was an important step towards understanding a new material as a counterpoint to metalsmithing and enameling.
Installation view of Fictitious Flora, Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin, 2016