Artist statement

Can the act of art-making redeem guilt? I would like to say yes. My creatures create an iridescent effect on my feelings for them. While I torture them by skinning, gutting, or cremating, I apologize to them for the pain to come. I ask them where they come from, who made them, and whom they have been with. Somehow a part of me transfers to them. I feel their pain and resistance. I care for them. I feel compassion for them. My emotion and attachment to the work show through and extend to the audience. I don’t save my creatures. I don’t give them up to a higher cause. Still, the act of art-making has a cleansing effect on me. It is not therapy. Yet it soothes me. It balances me. The process cleanses the creatures, my guilt, and the audience’s dark past to some extent. The bad past still exists in people’s hearts, but maybe they become lessened or a little bit cleaner. Guilt, regret, sadness, desire, love, care, generosity; are all tumbled into the wash and come out cleaner. A part of me always will be in any work I create. I blow my spirit into them.