About Me
I am a self-identifying fat, queer artist based in Kansas City, Missouri. I am currently interested in creating biomorphic ceramic sculptures about my experiences inhabiting a body that is seen in popular culture as grotesque and undesirable. I often makes work that elicits a contradicting response of disgust and desire from viewers. In 2019, I graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in ceramics before moving to Kansas City. By day, I am a Team Leader at Imagine That!, an art studio for adults with disabilities where I help to support other's in creating artworks that they're passionate about. And by night, I work in my home studio exploring my own art practice. I am currently creating a body of work inspired by themes of questioning desirability, and confronting viewer's own standards about the body.
Artist Statement
I aim to confront viewer's own notions about desirability and beauty. My work explores forms inspired by bodies people inhabit that are often perceived as repulsive and undesirable in popular culture. Since the beginning of my life, through media, relationships, and various other reinforcements—I was taught that bodies like mine, bodies categorized as "other", were less desirable and therefore deserving of policing from others. My work is a direct response to that perception, and a claim to my own autonomy as a fat woman. My forms are inspired by the qualities that fat people are often taught to hate about their own bodies. To elicit a contradictory response, I pair grotesque voluptuous forms, with textural, sometimes delicate embellishments. Recently, I have begun to explore the binaries of attraction and repulsion, femininity and masculinity, and disgust and desire. While seeking to blur the line between the two distinctions, I strive to force the viewers to dissect their own notions around beauty standards.