Artist Statement 

My grandmother was a hoarder extraordinaire. I think that’s why I’ve come to love mixed media so much. There’s a whole collector’s culture that comes with it—flea markets, antique shows, craft fairs—and it allows you to share with audiences what one might call the collector’s mentality, the joy to be found in the peculiarities of any object, snapshot, or torn scrap of paper. I usually work with one or two focal pieces and let those pieces build into an idea, a landscape, that shifts as I add other colors, layers, and materials. In my art, I’ve used everything from old pictures and tintypes to wax paper, pressed leaves, and junk jewelry. I also like to incorporate examples of the craft techniques I’ve picked up over the years, such as tatting, bookbinding, lacemaking, and stamp carving.