statement of purpose as an artist

“emotional archaeology”

This body of work is born as an expression of profound gratitude to the Indigenous communities and family lineages who opened their worlds and healing traditions to me. The deepest learnings of my life have come through these experiences.

Each collage is, in itself, a sacred container, carrying a volume of poured wisdom from one world to another.

When viewed together as a series, there is the potential emergence of a hieroglyphic structure for remembering the communications shared - non-verbally, energetically - within the Animistic traditions of Shipibo, Ashaninkan, and Bwiti tribal lineages.

Over time, these images have become talismans, holding layers of memory and meaning and forming a map - a metaphysical orientation - of what has been learned and how to hold on to these learnings as navigational tools.

As a self-taught artist, i come into the visual arts’ sphere obliquely through traditions of Outsider Art and Folk Art.

i interweave my training as a clinical psychologist -(focused on “psycho-somatic” symptoms and complexities of intergenerational trauma) - with lessons learned via immersion into the more spiritual healing traditions of specific Indigenous cultures and cosmologies.

To find visual language, i draw on traditions that include or reference:

the emotionally purgative function of Louise Bourgeous’ sculptures;

the Surrealist’s comprehension of the primary process language of dreams and the unconscious;

and the hybrid figures and shape-shifting fluidity of Animism and shamanic journeying.