Artist Statement

My work evolves from notations scientists have made to portray the inner workings of living things.
I have a sympathetic connection with these visual recordings as I attempt to resolve questions about the cycles of life, death and my relationship with the physical world.

Anatomical and botanical images rendered on the cusp of modern western history are of particular interest to me. Scientist/Illustrators such as Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) and Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) were among the first to use simple microscopes to explore below the surface of life forms. Their illustrations depicted the territory of the body, animal physiology and flora with insight unknown before their time.

Despite living in the 21st century where highly developed imaging technology abounds, I still feel a kinship with these early scientists’ attempts to understand the workings of nature invisible to the naked eye. Their visually poetic, if often erroneous, notations serve as metaphors for my own attempts to understand the margins of physical existence. In response, my work seeks a similar quality of speculation about the unseen. The pieces correlate botanical and anatomical forms to reference commonalities between life cycles of flora and the human body. I hope the work conveys both vulnerability and strength and exists, as we do in life, through a careful balancing of forces.