In my own art practice, I pull materials from my surrounding communities, mesh produce bags, plastic lawn chairs, and cell phone images taken during walks. These elements collapse into a kind of time warp, layering histories, references, and fragments of beauty. I often think about how slowing down and working with what’s at hand can build artwork, connection, and friendship.

Where wealth flourishes, I’m aware of my own privilege, what I have access to, and how I can use it to make something both sustainable and beautiful. Hand-cutting, painting, and firing thousands of individual mosaic pieces has become a meditative act for many of my pieces when I am too brain dead to problem solve in the studio. It allows me to slow down, to consider form, and to engage with the materials available to me through my role as an art teacher. I’m able to move each piece individually, without help. And yet, over time, all these small elements accumulate into a larger whole, embedding the values of collection, intention, and community into the very structure of my work.

In my own art practice, I pull materials from my surrounding communities, mesh produce bags, plastic lawn chairs, and cell phone images taken during walks. These elements collapse into a kind of time warp, layering histories, references, and fragments of beauty. I often think about how slowing down and working with what’s at hand can build artwork, connection, and friendship.

Where wealth flourishes, I’m aware of my own privilege, what I have access to, and how I can use it to make something both sustainable and beautiful. Hand-cutting, painting, and firing thousands of individual mosaic pieces has become a meditative act for many of my pieces when I am too brain dead to problem solve in the studio. It allows me to slow down, to consider form, and to engage with the materials available to me through my role as an art teacher. I’m able to move each piece individually, without help. And yet, over time, all these small elements accumulate into a larger whole, embedding the values of collection, intention, and community into the very structure of my work.