"Interdisciplinary art encompasses my work best. Through mixed media including glass, metal, and textiles I enjoy documenting the making process photographically, as much as sharing completed art objects. Recent self-portraits in sculpture explore relationships between time, materials, love, and bonding. Incorporating self-reflections with environmental activism is my current interest. I consider speculative futures, informed by collaborative academic research, to further my ideations. Final art pieces demonstrate the reciprocal internal struggles and triumphs of rendering visualizations. Including oral histories, where applicable along with technical challenges I have overcome or endured are integral. Drawing awareness of the impacts of environmental degradation through art is my motivation. Each object holds a story of personal and technical challenges overcome or endured. The complexities of sculpting and balancing hot liquid glass have held my attention for decades. Alternative mediums reinvigorate my creative perspective. Intentionally, my work challenges viewers' expectations of how materials can be manipulated, often hiding their identities within.
As an AAUS scientific diver, I focus my art practice on ocean-related research for outreach activism to make positive change in the world. My latest project focuses on community engagement in critical environmental issues via an ecological approach. In partnership with marine scientists at Cal Poly Humboldt, we are exploring ways to engage coastal communities with marine habitat restoration via art practice. Shifting current research methods to include community science perspectives could yield new mitigation solutions to marine degradation impacts along the Western Pacific coastlines. I am working to combine scientific knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, and artistically designed marine habitat structures, to join ongoing efforts to help further community engagement with local restoration efforts."