This body of work stems from the feeling of paradox between what I learned and how I feel about religion in China. I express these complex feelings through painting, drawing, printmaking, as well as the experimenting of light and dark in the exhibition gallery.

This paper represents a body of work: Shadow States of States. When we think of the making of America, what happened to the things that were cast aside?

This is a body of work produced at the University of Iowa. With these pieces I am interested in things that do not follow, that hold emotion but don't have a narrative. In the unknown being more real than the known, because there is life in the not understanding. And in lying about something there is no way you can pull off. There is a river of lava flowing below the surface, but there are no volcanoes.

I make, I feel, and I listen. Jewelry is a very intimate type of sculpture, an attraction to an object to be placed on the skin. I think of my pieces like thoughts or conversations with the materials. My thoughts lately are immersed in my fascination of felting wool. By choosing materials I am drawn to, my work is not bound to one material to convey my design. Through these materials small wearable sculptures are created that I hope engages the wearer as much as they engaged me during the creation. Color, texture, material, process becomes the inspiration for my jewelry. The colors in the raw unprocessed wool bundles are like stripped taffy candy, and transform into streaks and bursts of color that comes out through working the material. Wool is a very alluring material, the tactile sensation on the skin is pleasant and comforting. Maybe it is familiarity or the warmth of wool that attracts me, or the lush colors and textures. The wool is compacted and felted with a barbed needle, the structure is reinforced and strengthened as the process is repeated. Felted wool has given me a completely new language in which to create my work. Every step of the process of felting is enjoyable and meditative to me. My work is created purely instinctively, relying on my own aesthetics to guide my way through the making. Through these choices, a piece evolves on its own without restriction. I find this to be a very expressive way of working for me. Beyond these thoughts I do not place any boundaries or rules on my work. I hope the work engages you. I hope you are engaged.

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I’m interested in the scar tissue, the blemishing of our perception from the ache of longing and estrangement that comes from repression and returns as enigma. I’m investigating the notion that the body itself is a puppet that succumbs to the control of outside forces, making it vulnerable to mistreatment. The paintings come from cathected suffering through reminiscences brought forth from amorous memories, resulting in new encounters that replace old associations. It is the memory, not the event, that becomes traumatic.

Dr... who? I use common materials to make fantastic scenes/objects that are from another time and place. The work is transparent, both in how the construction is gone about and in the general likeness of the forms to the insides of machines. I hope this transparency hides something all the more mysterious because it is plainly shown. Absurd and nonsensical, the substance of my work arises from the convergence of things, elements and attributes, which seem incompatible; these separate elements combine into a mutant. If you ever played computer games in the 80s then you might recognize a similarity with my work in the hieroglyph like forms that these digital worlds are comprised of. Forms like the arrangement of colorful toy blocks stacked up against a wall in shallow relief; multi-tiered like the cross section of a building, elevators, fire escapes, plumbing and all. This blockiness is symptomatic of my low-tech aspiring to be hi-tech aesthetic. Failed utopias and painting centric worlds of the 20th century I hope to tap into to enrich the creation of my own alternate universe. I am interested in the flatness of abstract paintings; I always felt they were opining up something out of the every day world, another dimension with its own physics rebuilt from the bottom up. Strange fantastical realms are my passion. Maybe, I seek to know my own strangeness. Being in the world plainly, I stare into my naval and behold...why its... Dr... Who!??

This thesis discusses different aspects of our daily behaviors that interfere with our ability to engage with our environment with a heightened sensitivity and clarity. Fallacious reasoning, assumptions, and biases as the primary interferences that are addressed.

Humanity has entered a new geologic age wherein our actions have become the dominant influence steering both climate and environment, now having entered a new era of mass extinction. Some scientist allege that half of the extant animal species have disappeared in the last forty years, while other scientific studies project that the remaining nine million species will again halve by the end of the century. Although extinction cycles are no stranger to this planet, this sixth iteration is unique in that is being driven primarily by human consumption. It has been claimed that in order to sustain our current level of consumption, we would need a planet 1.5-2 times the size of the one we currently inhabit. It is easy to dismiss our individual responsibility as stewards of this planet. New modes of thinking about and approaching conservation at a local level must be developed in order to stave off the impending destruction of any and all species. Our own future as a species is inexorably linked to the success of the ecosystems we inhabit; their success, too, is bound to the species that sustain them. While this essay may not offer any meaningful solutions to an impending cataclysm, it is my hope that it will at the very least elicit a desire to amend the way we think about animals, nature, and the urgent responsibility we need to take for our planet in order for both our species and the Earth’s other inhabitants to endure.

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