My work is inspired by my practice as an educator, my perspective as an artist, and the people I work with. I observe and interact with an emotional collage of critical wonder, formed from the brilliant voices communicating and collaborating in space. My art aims to activate these collages with visual and sonic elements such as sculpture, sound design, painting, and drawing to create interactive installations, intent on sparking creative responses and collaboration through social interactions over time. Through documentation of the process, I gather the responses to produce reflections utilizing film, photographs, and audio. 

 

I focus on forming a context that welcomes that coexistence of critical wonder with works such as, Memories From Somewhere (2022), which is an immersive installation that invites youth and adults alike to utilize their creative voice over the course of several months. The installation welcomes an interactive sculpture of a chalkboard drum set hand drawn by youth to share space with a tap dancer's rhythm of movement, lyricists, and sixteen visual creations by autistic students, with each contribution creating another layer within the installation.  

 

My current work, Sound Exchange aims to workshop rhythm as the basis for artistic exploration. Participants are welcomed to interact with the space through various mediums, encouraging improvisation to allow mistakes to be used as momentum for finding creative tangents within the structure. This context intends for a functional collaborative space to develop and produce compositions spanning various art mediums. 

 

​Ultimately, collaging works into installations that encourage social engagement allows the possibility for this sense of "more" to be layered in a way that includes rather than dismisses. By valuing questions and using creative voices for communicating through barriers, my work intends to welcome individuals into a space of emotional and artistic exploration.