SALT
Winter 2023/24
Standing on a beach
no work to be done
confronted by me
desperate and numb
Work is the vacation
I don't want to be here
busy hustler’s heart
ceaselessly unsettled
Always tormented
endlessly following, doom
If I cannot vanish
I will consume
When you’re over the pain
And under the knife
Try pinching salt, or cutting tides
STUFFED ANIMAL WALL
Winter 2023/24
Stuffed animal wall
I want to connect
So i'll catch glimpses
With my net
A net is a grid
And if you fall off
You will find yourself
In a box
Im looking for patterns
To make an equation
Of how to optimize
Every sensation
I have no self
Only urges I follow
Spit on my face
I'll open and swallow
Material: yarn, fabric, paint
SLUGGER
Summer 2023
This felt piece explores the human condition of absorbing and carrying past realities with us. Though all we have is the present, we are in large parts made up of our past experiences. Half shadows half blood, half texture half light. We are all open mouths swallowing our surroundings, trudging forward with vague interpretations. This piece is an animal made of this ongoing experience, and has no function. Function is the odd, experimental, nonsensical detail in our energistic experience that makes us human, and tethers us to this physical world. This animal is us without our inherent baggage of needing purpose and resources. It embodies energy, emotion and grows larger based on its collection of experiences, not time.
CRYING
Summer 2023
This ceramic sculpture is made of the tears it expels, representing infinity, and the circle of life.
MAKE ME SICK
SO I CAN REST
Summer 2023
This piece depicts the desperate want for more, the unrelenting need to move. Even when there is no reason to, even if it means ruining what I have created, I am trapped. Being driven forward serves no purpose without intention, and not being capable of stopping is a mental prison. As a child I liked having a stomach bug because it made me feel as though I could finally rest, and now I enjoy being hungover because it cripples my brain. To quote my highschool journal, “Temperamental mind where laying back is no vacation and relaxing is a death sentence.”
I AM THE MONKEY
ON MY SHIRT
Spring 2023
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
I AM THE WAY THAT I BEHAVE
I AM THE THOUGHTS
INSIDE MY HEAD
Spring 2023
I EAT BOOGERS
BLOOD
AND RAIN
Spring 2023
This series explores the fluidity of humans, and therefore the fallacy of self. Humans dress as a form of self expression and act according to what they believe is a good representation of who they are. We attach the ongoing inner monologue in our heads to our sense of self, and we can use drugs or food to explore our emotional and physical capacities. We are not bound by our clothes, behavior, thoughts or what we consume. There is no self to be bound to. Every moment we change by progressing forward.
BYSTANDOR
Spring 2023
PREDATOR
Spring 2023
PREY
Spring 2023
This series depicts my associations with animals and humans, exploring the distinctions between facts vs honesty. Each creature's form combines various animals which share physical, functional and social similarities that parallel humanity. I was inspired to begin this series by recreating a childhood drawing of a reptilian looking creature, that I have now named Bystander. Growing up I felt like a bystander to the world instead of a part of it. Stemming from that long held feeling, I began to think about other roles or perspectives animals and humans alike could have, and narrowed it down to predator and prey. Predator, Prey, and Bystander are hidden roles humans and animals can play, unseeable paths forward, changing at any time. I wanted these roles to not only be visible on the creatures, but to be them. An object is what it looks like, making it factual and honest at the same time. Animals and humans are not this way, we are made up of facts that control how we look, but what we look like may not be honest to who we are. Energy, movement and structure are some pieces which make up a human, whereas objects have these qualities because of what they are. Meaning to me, objects are the only inherently honest thing, fully encompassing everything that they are. A box is what it announces itself to be. I am square, I have four sides. I am a box. Period. I want this honesty and lack of boundaries which objects have to be apparent in my work depicting living forms. The animal or person's structure is its energy, which amplifies its humanity and realness while at the same time objectifying and de-humanizing it. I am reducing humans and animals to the energy which I receive from them, creating stereotypes, which I believe are honesty without fact, and though can be hurtful, allow us to share with others a more accurate idea of our lens.
HUG ME BLANKET
March 2023
This work explores early memories of receiving comfort from objects. Here I use a color pallet based on many items, like stuffed animals or collectable cards, which I was attracted to. I think of this piece as being a children's blanket, because it represents a feeling of safety. Growing up I always wanted to be around more people, yet felt as though I could only be comfortable by myself. Being comfortable does not mean feeling happy, and in order to feel as though I could be more social I hid a lot of myself. A mask appears in the center of the piece, referencing an autistic coping mechanism used to hide behavior that may be viewed as weird, called masking. Here I express the battle between feeling lonely, yet comfortable with myself, and being around others, while hating myself.
PARTY ANIMAL
November 2022
This is a sculptural collage of animals I have dreamed of attacking me.
FLOATING HOUSE
September 2022
Home holds no permanence, just a place for things. House is always busy, Home has rest for its occupancies. I live in a house, I make it work for me. Home is somewhere inside… but everyday I'm out here. I often use houses in my work to express a discomfort I have around this symbol. I have spent a lot of time in solitude within a house, making home feel like a lonely place. I have imagended what it means to feel the comfort of home many times but I do not know if I will ever be able to fully grasp it. What I gained from existing in houses, spending time with my inner monologue, is becoming very aware of how I think. Though I am always able to have a conversation with myself, I cannot tell you an idea of how I am perceived or who I am in relation to others. I have been my own friend, my own mentor, my own enemy, and my own audience. I am still in conflict with this idea that I have to be everything because it has made me a lot but it has kept me alone. Most of my life I lived with the understanding that I am everything, until there are others, then I am alone. Sometimes I think I am growing in reverse. How I am going to exist is clear to me and I can achieve everything I desire, but there is no foundation below me and I do not know how to touch.
MUSCLE MAN
August 2022
Muscle man is a character who is only made of muscle, missing his skin and bone. His dog bone,a blue four legged creature who appears in many drawings, missing muscle and skin. Muscle and Bone are finished creatures, living in the world among us, yet are missing an outer layer seen as essential to protect us all. They are able to survive without it because they are unaware of the fact that they need it to live.
MOTHER, FOLK ART
August 2022, December 2022
Painted and dyed woven tapistry depicting the sculpture, Mother.
CITY &
CULTURE
August 2022
These illustrations/collages depict a combination of many cities and cultures I have observed. With so many people to watch and minimal expectation of interaction, I have always felt comfortable in cities. I am overwhelmed and intrigued by the idea of unrelated lives functioning on top of eachother. A single building holding a home, a business, different languages, religions and races, coexisting only feet away from each other, yet potentially never having to collide.
3 POEMS
July 2022
1.
I AM A SHARK IN A POOL AND A FLOATY IN THE OCEAN
2.
A perfect land that he seeks after
No mistakes from the puppet master
World that never felt disasterA place that lasts is made of plaster
3.
Ride the train
Half a brain
Link on a chain
Sitting down
The shaking clown
Knows my name
I AM A SHARK IN A POOL AND A FLOATY IN THE OCEAN
2.
A perfect land that he seeks after
No mistakes from the puppet master
World that never felt disasterA place that lasts is made of plaster
3.
Ride the train
Half a brain
Link on a chain
Sitting down
The shaking clown
Knows my name
AMERICAN DREAM
June 2022
The idea that independence stands above harnessing relationships
The misconception that efficiency has more positive effects than negative ones
The american dream is earning enough time to do nothing
RATDOG BOYFRIEND GIRLFRIEND
June 2022
Ratdog is an ambiguous animal who remains in its free primal state while being a part of a human family. His family consists of two human characters, who act as Boyfriend and Girlfriend. This scene depicts a child-like idea of a utopian world. Care without responsibility and harmony of species. The couple express elements of individual taste while also touching on the “boyfriend and girlfriend” archetypes in their aesthetic. They conform to the standard normative “couple” many of us grew up familiar with or desiring on some level. Ratdog also has toylike qualities, barring three style options on his side, to appeal to anyone and be adaptable to any occasion.
DREAM REALITY
June 2022
This crochet human has two faces. A large flat fractured face hides a more neutral head which more properly fits the body. Looking from the back the viewer can see, the neutral head is holding the large flat face in its arms, whereas from the front the large face appears as the body's only head. The large face is simply a menacing illusion, created in the neutral being's mind, yet everything the neutral head sees is through the lense of a larger flat face, and from the neutral head's perspective, the face is more real and impending. This represents my relationship with mental illness and the dream world. Sometimes not understanding where the line between dream and reality is drawn, and not being able to see the world or myself clearly when in a depressive bout. The dream world takes the fear, depression, trauma, emptiness or any intense feelings and/or difficulties I am dealing with in the sensory world, and presents them to me as living beings I can face instead of invisible anxieties I cannot fix.
BINKIE
May 2022
This crying child is overwhelmed. Filled with emotion from all the things in the world they notice, not understanding how to use the images in their mind, not seeing anyone who would ever care, and even if they might, not knowing how to show them anyway. The only way binkie can express their interests and point of view is to leave their human body and become the entities which fascinate them.
IF I WERE A WOMAN IT WOULD TAKE ALL DAY
May 2022
This woman embodies the elements of femininity which I am attracted to. Clothes beyond function, an unconventionally shaped garment which envelopes the torso and face. The face is expressing fear, excitement, and wonder, as a little thing in a big world. Quilted pants bring the effortless beauty of my bed to the stage of my life, long nails because I am sharp, need to protect myself, and have no reason to work. No makeup unless it's face paint or bright lipstick. If I was a woman, and maybe I would like to be for just a day, I would be like a diamond floating around, eating ripe fruit and reading on my porch, filling my home with gold chachkies just to watch them collect dust. This piece is fashionable, stylish, dangerous, and effortless.
Material: Paper mache, fabric, yarn, felt, beads, acrylic nails
Material: Paper mache, fabric, yarn, felt, beads, acrylic nails
DOLLS DOLLS DOLLS
April, 2022
These crochet dolls were inspired after a visit to Flying Shuttle, an establishment near my studio which conducts art classes for adults with disabilities. Seeing the work by these artists, I felt more inspired by and connected to the ideas, materials, and styles than I have previously experienced looking at art. Being a neurodiverse person functioning in a neurotypical world, I often feel as though my thoughts and ideas will be lost in translation or misinterpreted. DOLLS DOLLS DOLLS touches on feelings surrounding identity and what a mental disability feels like in an able bodied existence. Hidden neurological differences have stuck me between two worlds: the neurotypical one which I occupy physically because I am an able bodied person, and the neurodiverse one I live in mentally. Both worlds provide me with important insight and information, neither feeling truly like my place.
HOME IS WHERE
April 2022
This paper mache sculpture includes fabric elements including curtains, felt finger puppets, hair decorations, and fabric collage feet. This work was created during a long pursuit of practicing being more comfortable in vulnerability and transparent about who I am. I have become aware that any normal amount of sharing about myself will bring me to tears because of the amount I withhold from others. I am pursuing the certainty that I am as real as the humans I see, instead of just eyes looking out a window, I am a body with a history and am able to be perceived. The feet on this figure read “home is where” referencing word art found in the home decor section of chain stores like Marshalls. Instead of continuing the sentence into something hokey and what I find to be the makings of a dystopian family, or robot family pretending to be humans, I end the sentence. This is to express the strong feelings I have had throughout my life of not coming from or belonging anywhere.
INSIDE INSIDE OUTSIDE OUTSIDE
March 2022
This collage illustrates the categories of space which I see as the boundaries to which humans are confined to by our own perception. Inside Inside represents thoughts, feelings, food when it's eaten, bones and organs. Everything we are unable to see with the human eye but is measurable in some way. Inside; the indoors, Outside; the outdoors. Outside Outside is what we consider to be nature and most untouched by human influence.
Dimensions: 42” X 30”
Material: Paper Collage
Watch animation of collage ︎︎︎
INFANTILE GUILT
February 2022
These three baby dolls symbolize the process of regression sparked by feelings of guilt. The mask of indifference they wear on their heads, hiding their feelings in a deeper place, making it more difficult to see a way through whatever they may be facing. Here I give a child-like comforting vessel to hold shame, guilt, fear, self doubt, and all other self inflicted suffering.
Dimensions: 15” X 7” each
Material: Fabric, felt, yarn
Material: Fabric, felt, yarn
CREATE, PERFORM, PLAY
January – June 2022
These paper mâché counterparts I made to represent a need, and as a trophy of self discovery. I have been unhappy for much of my adolescence and adult life, not knowing what I needed to function well. Since I have started making art, everything in my life has started making sense. This reacquaintance with feelings of purpose and inspiration have been emotional and revealing. This work depicts the actions which I know for certain give me these feelings above all else, and reminds me of my function on earth.
Dimensions: Create:17” X 8” Perform: 26” X 25” Play: 14” X 30”
Material: paper, yarn, fabric, wire
Material: paper, yarn, fabric, wire
SECURITY CAMERA OF MY LIFE
Nov 2021 – March 2022
This multimedia knit wall piece brings in felt, yarn, fabric, paint. This Knit and felt wall piece was made to act as a neutral observer of my process and creations. The knit grid was modeled based on my memory of what a security camera screen looks like. I believe re-creating a representation of an existing object from memory instead of crafting the object while referencing it, allows a new dimension to be brought into the world. A dimension between physical reality and mental reality. Security Camera Of My life depicts an abstracted version of how I move through my day and what that looks like though my eyes, through the eyes of my creation
Dimensions: 56” X 96”
Materials: yarn, felt, wood, fabric
ISLAND VACATION
Dec 2021 – Jan 2022
While on a trip with my partner's family to The Big Island of Hawaii, where I had once lived, I wanted to create a piece out of found materials from the island. In the past living on the island, I faced many harsh realities based on the circumstances I was under. While revisiting, I found myself safe, and was able to look with a new perspective at the locals as well as tourists on the Island. These colorful, happy, and festive balaclavas represent witnessing a phenomenon involving invisibility of individuality, facade of sameness, and distance between the locals and tourists.
Dimensions: group of small heads: 12” X 27” group of large heads: 20” X 28”
Materials: Paper, yarn, wire
Materials: Paper, yarn, wire
MASKS
Jan 2022
This collage reveals the human landscape in my mind. A mask is an object and symbol I repeatedly use in my work, and here it is shown in different styles, displaying a hierarchy. I used this symbol before being aware that "mask" is a term for an autistic coping mechanism, which I realized is a prevalent behavior throughout my life. Here I use the symbol commenting on social hierarchies and contradictions. Powerful figures are unknowable, but hiding is weak? Oppressors have control, yet less knowledge of the oppressed, whereas the oppressed are knowledgeable about the oppressor.
Dimensions: 28” X 22”
Materials: Paper, crayon, Pen, silkscreen prints
THE RICH, THE POOR, THE FORTUNATE
2021
These wall hanging crochet and fabric forms are energy renderings based on my aesthetic associations with the archetypes of rich and poor people in media. The character I call “the fortunate” is free from the weight of these financial traps and depicts an unencumbered individual, absent of shame caused by their economic standing. The rich is the circular form, the poor the square, and the fortune is the long one.
FROGGY
2021
Froggy is an energy caricature of a performer stuck in servitude, like a waiter or cruise line dancer. He is physically expressive, reserved, and talented, yet unnoticed when his performance ends.
Dimensions: 16” X 8”
Material: Fabric, paint, yarn
Material: Fabric, paint, yarn
ENERGY BALL FOR SAM
2021
This Fabric wall piece was made as a gift for my partner Sam Shorr. It stands out from my previous work because it lacks darkness and displays a joyous part of life, love. The image represented began with a Macbook computer's “Photobooth” image taken in the “light tunnel” effect. This was initially transferred into a pen and crayon illustration, then turned into this fabric wall piece.
PAPER PEOPLE; SERIES 1
2021
The Golfer, The Music Lover, The Bachelor, Stabby Child
These paper sculptures were made using grocery bags as a base, then tissue paper as a surface layer. This material allows me to add details using ink, which is normally only shown in my illustration work. Each of these paper people includes some type of fabric or yarn accessory, bringing together two focuses of mine into the same world; fibers and illustration. This group represents memories of the adults around me as a child, showcasing what their energies looked like to me as a collective. I call this “caricature energy”, meaning a combination and exaggeration of what a group of people from memory felt like in my mind, rather than depicting what they individually were like, and exploring why they were mentally grouped together. Golfer is a combination of dads who relate through physical activity, Music lover and Stabby Child a homeschool mother and child counterpart, Bachelor a man who was at the event but I never knew why.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Dimensions: The Golfer: 18” X 21” The Music Lover: 26” X 14” The Bachelor: 12” X 26” Stabby Child: 17” X 15”
Material: paper, fabric, yarn
These paper sculptures were made using grocery bags as a base, then tissue paper as a surface layer. This material allows me to add details using ink, which is normally only shown in my illustration work. Each of these paper people includes some type of fabric or yarn accessory, bringing together two focuses of mine into the same world; fibers and illustration. This group represents memories of the adults around me as a child, showcasing what their energies looked like to me as a collective. I call this “caricature energy”, meaning a combination and exaggeration of what a group of people from memory felt like in my mind, rather than depicting what they individually were like, and exploring why they were mentally grouped together. Golfer is a combination of dads who relate through physical activity, Music lover and Stabby Child a homeschool mother and child counterpart, Bachelor a man who was at the event but I never knew why.
Dimensions: The Golfer: 18” X 21” The Music Lover: 26” X 14” The Bachelor: 12” X 26” Stabby Child: 17” X 15”
Material: paper, fabric, yarn
SOFT BOXER
2021
Soft boxer is a super human-like character created with powers which I have desired. Soft Boxer furiously fights with punches, but no matter how violently Boxer fights, they’re soft fists will never be hurt, and they themself cannot hurt anything. This form is based on my experiences of domestic abuse and feelings of being misunderstood as a child. Being so soft yet so full of anger. Wanting to fight while feeling as though I had no control.
Dimensions: 15.5" wide, 19" tall, 14" deep
Material: fabric, paper, airbrush, embroidery thread
SMOOTH RENDERING OF THE JAGGED COMPLEX BEING
2021
This knit piece with fabric elements continues on the theme of a mask, a strong symbol in my life relating to autism and gender. A driving force of this work was experimentation with material and process. The use of newer learned techniques like embroidery, weaving and natural dying, are combined with more familiar ones such as knitting, hand stitching and machine sewing.
Dimensions: 24" X 57"
Material: yarn, fabric, dye, embroidery thread
PUPPET HOUSE
2021
These puppet dolls were made to be friends, and to tell stories. They were created by hand using fabric, sock scraps, and stamps. I always had stuffed animals on this scale as a child which I deeply cared for. Now more fascinated with humans, I create these friends to love and carry. The house they live in is made from plywood, paper bags wheat pasted, and curtains created from scrap fabric material. This house acts to the viewer as a stage for the puppets to be witnessed.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Dimensions: 28" Wide, 42" tall, 6.5" deep
Material: Plywood, fabric, wheat paste, paper, paint, embroidery thread
Dimensions: 28" Wide, 42" tall, 6.5" deep
Material: Plywood, fabric, wheat paste, paper, paint, embroidery thread
MOTHER
2021
This large scale doll-like form began by wanting to express the energy that two smaller puppet dolls I made previously, Mi and Frend, had on a larger scale, and duplicate elements of the process used in their creation. This work has now taken on a matriarchal presence to my other forms, combining my aesthetic observations of the archetype, the “mother”, with energies created in this imaged world. I used a range of techniques beyond machine sewing for the creation of this work, which include sculpting the base with paper, hand stitching the components together, paint
Dimensions: 36" X 78"
Material: fabric, paint, embroidery thread, paper, tape, airbrush
Material: fabric, paint, embroidery thread, paper, tape, airbrush
SOFT AS BLOOD
2020My body is soft, my face is smooth and round, and my opinions often kept reserved for digestion. I’m uncomfortable that I look like a woman. My mind is dark and unsettling, creating images that scare me. My brain is harsh, my thoughts unforgiving, and my words sharply precise when I choose to let them out. I feel so at peace in this genderless mind, but only few have met me. When I was younger I loved to bleed. Blood was the only force strong enough to harshen my cheeks. Now as I grow and become more stable, I express my genderless self with other reds, as a reminder that I can exist just as human, and I dont have to bleed to show I am.
This macrame sculpture combines bodily elements to represent the form of expression which I once relied on before I was creating art. The melted plastic panels sewn together represent a transparency which I am starting to gain in my life as I gain confidence. I want to hold up the blood behind this “glass” as an object of beauty because it is pain and these have never existed independently.
Dimensions 7’ 10” X 3’ 2”
Material: cotton rope, yarn, fabric, plastic, hemp, nylon rope, paint, and trash materials
MY FRIEND YOUR FRIEND WEARS A MASK
2020
The creation of this wall piece began by wanting to capture a perspective I don't get to see in the physical world. Seeing only the hands and face of someone is rare in most circumstances but what receives most of my attention. I think by removing the body it allows free unfiltered movement instead of connecting action to person. The hands looking back into the face as close friends offer a reflection of not only the self but of what is to be. This process led me to a more direct self expression. Here I reflect the dark ominous parts of myself within the context of a joyous activity. I celebrate the power I feel in being a soft cynic. The theme of a mask is a recurring theme in my work since I started keeping a sketchbook in high school. The mask is such a powerful symbol to me because of how much I have withheld behind my own masks throughout my life. The mask I create is round, soft, unaffected, unapproachable, unknowable and always in action.
Dimensions: 30” X 48”
Material: yarn, fabric, wood, paint
DEPARTMENT STORE WALKATHON
2020
In this wall piece I express the elements of luxury in everyday life which I admire. I am fascinated by the objects in stores regardless of whether they were created to manipulate, sooth, excite, or elevate us. In thrift stores I am inspired by the possibilities of discovery or renewal. In bulk goods stores like Ocean State Job Lots I am fascinated by what products are made for us and how the people behind these products express their vision through labels. I find this search luxurious. Picking up whatever I choose, deciding whether it is worth collecting, or if I can just take what it has already fed me in knowledge and leave it behind. Luxury is one of a kind and having one of each kind.
Dimensions:
70” X 44”
Material: fabric, paint, wood
LUCY’S PALACE
2020
A piece to express a desire to connect to my heritage and more specifically my grandmother. The formation of domestic scenes sewn together with many small pieces was intended to reflect methods and aesthetics commonly used in traditional Colombian tapestries. I wanted to attribute this to my grandmother's life work with textiles. Though she does not make artistic tapestries, she has worked as a seamstress for her whole life to sustain herself and her family. Moving to the United States to receive better care for one of her disabled children, she opened Lucy’s Place, a sewing shop in Miami. I see pieces of myself in her connection to material and practicality of life. I hope to express this connection I feel to her with this tapestry. The use of a domestic scene inside of an abstract form that is reminiscent of clouds and heaven is not only to touch on our practicality but also to reference her deep religious faith and connection to the material world.
Dimensions: 4’X 9”
Material: fabric, embroidery thread