I always loved playing in the mud when I was a kid. Squishing the wet dirt between my fingers, mixing the rocks in the mud kitchen with my cousins, dancing in the brown mire running back and forth between the kiddy pools and the old vegetable garden in the backyard. This feeling of play, feeling of freedom and silliness and discovery and being connected to the earth has always been poignant to me. 

I am a multimedia sculptor. My work is driven by concepts of mental health and intergenerational relationships, process and materiality. My mental health experience has been sporadic and it's been something I am continuously growing with. My anxiety can feel unbalanced, it can feel baseless, and as if I am floating. Lightheaded, physical turmoil and shaky. Hands on the earth, feet in water, routines with the family, these are only a couple things that help bring me back to earth. The pieces refer to one another, refer to my grandparents, refer to my home, refer to order and a foundation of routine. Influenced by my own experience of anxiety, that of my grandmother, and the values that have been instilled in me as a child, the routines and the foundations that have been engrained and the importance of a routine,a ritual, and the balance and stability that growing up in a place where there are beneficial traditions that have been and will be carried for years to come bring. The cracks in my concrete, the bricks in the side of my house, the stones in our gardens, everything is synonymous with the foundations I have in my work. 

The body of works shown in my thesis exhibition unfolds a culmination of pieces based on what it means to be grounded, in a place, in a person, in a routine. Mud Pies is reminiscent of what it means to play in the mud as a kid. Playing in Grandma and Grandpa’s Garden.... (Hopper Rocks) explores materiality and play- letting the material drive the piece. Sediments of Home / Held in Stone discovers the idea of home and place, erosion and materiality through the passing of time. Using fundamentals and principles of designs as a foundation, materiality is brought to a forefront with pieces echoing natural materials in an archival setting. 

In this exhibition, the process of making is synonymous with the pieces themselves. The textures are brought out through impulsive, process oriented movements, they are raw, messy and they tell the story of how earth and our own metaphorical loam that comes from being in a childhood home. 

The rust dyed canvas cocoons and settles into the white cube, the fragments of the earth bring forth history of family, of the people that brought on traditions that are instilled today. The paper and bronze materials, grounding through touch, sensorial moments and being one with nature are all things that benefit those with anxiety. Weight, play and messiness, grounding oneself in nostalgic tendencies is something that helps us better understand ourselves. Artists use these moments everyday in their art practice, specifically those that work in these sculptural mediums- I look towards artists such as Adi Toch, Aneta Regel and Vivian Suter - having direct contact with their work. The works that are brought forth in this exhibition mirror these tendencies and moments, each piece in the body of work are synonyms with a different facet of grounding through a multimedia lens.