I create my artwork to act as a window into which I allow people to see into my perspective and experiences. I see my art pieces as a way to communicate with the audience the feelings and thoughts that I have when it comes to being an adoptee. This perspective is important because so regularly it is a misunderstood or even a generalized assumption. Many adoptees have feelings that are shared, however individual experiences offer different perceptions. For example, I was talking to my brother who is also adopted and he told me that he felt abandoned and unwanted. To a degree I can relate to this, however, his family had several children before him while I was the first child in my family. His sense of abandonment is heightened by the knowledge of the circumstances his family was facing. Neither of us feels that we would have rather been with our biological families as there is no replacing our family, but there is this unrest and the lurking feeling of wondering what things could have been like had we not been adopted. In response to this, I broke down what aspects of adoption were the most impactful:
Home as a shelter and mental structure
Landscape as an identity shaping tool
The family unit as a dynamic
Societal understandings of adoption.
In addition to concept, the process of sculpting is important to the work I create as physicality and materiality bring a grounding element to my ideas. Adoption is complex and using materials such as glass, metal, wood, and fibers offer a place of familiarity. Selecting materials for conceptual value is significant to the work in order to convey meaning. For example, I choose glass for its dualistic quality of being fragile and strong, transparent and opaque. Fibers like fabric and wool offer associations with warmth and comfort which is important when my work focuses topics of family and the home. In addition to sculpture providing conceptual value, there is a healing component to the process of creation. Pouring a copious amount of time and materials for the soul purpose of creating art is a profound moment of effort for expression. In the book All About Process by Kim Grant examines why creation is important and its relevance to society. Art is a different form of expression and Grant goes on to state, “The artists’ labor is a means of objectifying thought and feeling, a belief that derives from his overall conception of art as the materialization of spirit.”