Artist Statement

Ever since the ideals of the Enlightenment took root in our culture, Western society has put its faith in the process of scientific inquiry. We believe that unraveling the mysteries of the universe is a conquerable challenge--that the world is finite and knowable, and that we can understand everything if only we ask the right questions. This desire to understand, and the inevitable tension created when our understanding reaches its limits, is at the core of much of my work.

I am interested in the notion of wonder, a state of pre-knowledge that is characterized by an awareness of the unknown coupled with enough marvel and awe to motivate one to strive towards comprehension. Wonder represents both the impetus for and consequence of much of my work. My pieces often document attempts to reduce the infinite complexity of the world to concrete visual representations--in a sense, to diagram life. In devising and documenting such tactics, I am expressing the urge to acquire knowledge that wonder constitutes, but unlike a good researcher, my pieces are not necessarily designed to offer conclusions.  I am unwilling to leave behind the state of wonder, the tenuous spot between knowing and not-knowing.

Ultimately, I am performing a kind of analysis of a greater experiment, an inquiry into the construction of truth.  I think I am seeking an understanding that transcends the limits of a dichotomy of fact and fiction, an in-between space that I find most satisfying.