Mending: MFA Solo Exhibition

Artist Statement: “Mending”

 Oxford Dictionary:

          “Mending” (noun) things to be repaired by sewing or darning.

          “Mend” (verb) return to health, heal

With every stitch and suture placed to build my sculptures I foster and create a mental space that allows for spiritual healing.   Animal forms show what I worship, and I aim to exhibit how their spirits are captured in my memory.  Seams of stitching across each figure tell a story of their lives, how they came to exist as they do today.  Beads alongside threads beneath the skin of each figure and the use of the whip stitch I learned growing up, are ties to my cultural heritage.  The beads and threads also trace life-providing veins and arteries lying beneath the skin, a source of vulnerability but also essential vitality.