My work is about the importance and beauty of understanding the unconscious meaning beneath a photograph’s obvious content. Through portraiture and still-life, I attempt to peel away external representations and work to understand the essential implications of my relationship to womanhood.
In this body of work, I use confections as a metaphor to explore secrets, discovery, and pleasure. I deconstruct the sweets, using a psychoanalytic approach. Luscious on the surface, they are sliced, fragmented, squashed, and rearranged. Photographed at dizzying angles, they come together and pull apart. The oversized prints are alluring but generate discomfiting sensations in the viewer. Stacked, squeezed, or dripping, they are unnerving to look at and hard to walk away from. Exposing the illusions we learn to live with is uncomfortable but necessary for change. Making art is about clarity and taking back joy.
I am interested in the intersection between relationships and the unconscious, reconciling the past with the present and delving into the intricacies of emotions and memories that shape our understanding of ourselves and others. Most importantly, the conflict between what we consciously know and how we intuitively feel, recognizing that new fears often echo old fears, perpetuating cycles of emotional complexity.
For over thirty years, my practice has been a journey of confronting personal truths that may by uncomfortable or painful yet essential for growth. Underlying the work is an emphasis on the courage it takes to understand one’s conflicts, advocating for a stance of not looking away from the complexities of human experience. Throughout my various series, I attempt to portray an unvarnished and psychologically raw reality of human relationships and inner lives, challenging viewers to engage with the complexities of their own existence.
