I worked in social work and adoption for several years; I also taught and wrote two books on Attachment Theory which explore the process by which children bond with their adult caregivers: the quality of this bond is crucial to developing empathy and meaningful relationships later in life.
For both personal and professional reasons, the concept of attachment is a central foundation of my artwork.
I am similarly interested in the continua in which we all participate, not only the vertical continuum between generations—grandparents, parents, children—, but also the horizontal continuum between Earth’s many different organisms.
The ways in which human society and nature interact are intricate and multiple: we all rely on each other—the concept of the “self-made individual” is a fiction.
Solidarity is essential to our well-being, to our survival, but is often tested by life’s ever-present conflicts.
My work expresses a large breadth of emotions related to the complexity of the human condition.
It exists in a space between representation and abstraction, where some elements are more evidently recognizable, while others are worn, scuffed, distorted, burned, or buried.
My choice of materials, approaches and methods actualizes a visual narrative related to attachment and relationship, to absence, estrangement, and loss.
I overlap and intertwine media, substances, textures, colours; I use discarded and repurposed clothing, fabric, plant material, metal and found objects … blurring the lines between painting and sculpture to create a memory, an experience, a contribution to our shared human adventure.
I am conscious of the sacredness of found materials that belonged to others and of the existence they had before coming into my hands; I listen, and work in collaboration with them: creating “with four hands” enriches my process.
With its range of expressions, from drawing to painting, to assemblage and installation, my work participates in the continua and circularity, in the processes of mutation and renewal of the universe: “The paradox of the human condition is that one can only become oneself through the influence of others.” (Boris Cyrulnik)
Photograph: Alain Lefort