ARTIST STATEMENT

My art making process begins with combining personal free verse with various materials to create sculptures that are physical explorations of intimate psychological themes. I combine Raku and pit-fired stoneware with chicken wire, rabbit fur, paper, eggshells, and other media to create visual narratives.

My meditations on womanhood, femininity, and personal/cultural/racial history create the thematic investigations in shape, form, color, and materials in my work. The figurative forms I create are slightly feminine yet have a sexual undertow expressed through curves, creases, dimples, and inviting surface qualities. The exquisitely delicate and ephemeral meet the eternal existence of experience and memory. The process of writing and creating sculpture are intertwined in a symbiotic dance that gives life and depth to the work.

The human condition is that of perpetual confusion and discovery. My sculpture is an expression of all the thoughts, fears, judgments, and feelings that constantly drive me. My artistic thesis stems from the deeply personal but remains abstract and broad enough to encourage viewer interpretation. Our feelings and perceptions about people or events depend to a great extent on our relationship to them. It is only by viewing things at different times in our lives that we can fully appreciate and understand them. My work challenges these different and often opposing views of our past, present, and future condition. I approach my subject matter with primal and innocent experimentation to excavate the intuitive and hidden history of self.

CMcC

Baltimore, MD
2009