ARTIST STATEMENT

 

“It is monumental, and yet it is just a balloon. My work consistently plays on such dichotomies. Viewers expect inflatables to be whimsical and ironic, what they are not prepared for is the affecting power of air as an animating force. The appearance of breathing within my figures and forms has the power to evoke a physical empathy within the viewers; they too breathe, they too are animated and sustained by this powerful but elusive force—air. When I speak of animation I am referring not only to the motion within my work, I am also referring to the forces that animate us emotionally, spiritually and politically. Monuments typically are not temporary. While this should be a weakness, this transience is also a source of power. The awareness of breath is also the awareness that at some time breath will cease. This tenuousness, I feel, makes our connection to things and to others all the more urgent.”