Artist Statement

The residual memory of our experiences exists within us, connecting us to and isolating us from thoughts and feelings experienced in different spaces, places, and time.  These traces of memory stored within our bodies point towards a reality that exists within us but that we no longer directly experience. Similar to the way in which our bodies act as vessels containing and storing memories, I collect and save remnants from a vanishing petroleum based economy. Packaging materials that are originally designed to protect something more valuable are re-conceptualized as talisman of cultural meaning. Through this intersection of consumer culture and references to Cherokee art forms, I interact with and shift the function of everyday objects.  Through this appropriation, I address personal issues of identity, cultural loss, and displacement with the use of humor and notions of the absurd.  Wading through the seemingly endless void of consumption, I use shapes, colors, and patterns as symbolic guides to work through ideas of Survivance regarding Cherokee traditions, culture, and cosmology. By interacting with and shifting the function of everyday objects into contemporary metaphors, I create a new language that interconnects with traditional Cherokee art forms which manifests through resonances of consumer culture that engulfs us all.