Theses and Dissertations Collection

I seek to create visual fields that hold space for viewers, whether they be imagined or physical images, that through the act of viewing, can internalize an experience similar to that of my own creation process. In my creative research, I don’t seek to define what my artwork will depict when I begin, but rather I seek to be present through it. How I define space is often gestural and suggestive of an expanse that exists outside of our everyday understanding. It is the thing of which there are no words to describe. Consider this suggestion: imagine that you close your eyes. This phrase distills the essence of creation by way of limiting it to the cognitive form. By asking the viewer to confront the contradictory act of attempting something that is seemingly impossible, I am leaving them suspended in a space that is full of potential. The same can be said for asking someone to hug the air. There is something to be considered in the vacant space created in the shell of their body and arms. It is up to the individual to imagine who or what could occupy that space. My work is an open invitation for the audience to consider the roles of form, memory and introspection and how we as creative beings can use them to reconcile that which we know to exist but are unable to define.