"Mother Midas"
"Soul Tied"
This piece aimed to create a dialog between a handmade mixed material sculpture and a sculpture made of found objects. It explores our uses of connection and communication through our eyes and our mouths as well as hidden locations of the body versus the most common locations of focus.
CANDY CAGE
"Candy Cage" was a sensory immersive experience. Installed in a dark hallway as the only source of light, when the viewer approached under it, they would be hit with a wave of sweet artificial smells coming from the candy casted soap lining the inside of the plaster covered branches shaped into a rib cage. Though the piece is bright, colorful, and smells amazing, it holds a sharp contrast with the realities of high daily sugar consumption for the overwhelming majority of Americans.
TRANSCEND
"Transcend" celebrates individualistic expression while also being influenced by ideals of collectivism and care for the whole, as one would find in Asian countries, which have proven to be effective in battling this pandemic. The piece could be viewed as how we might adapt our fashion and forms of personal expression in a futuristic quarantine world. Mask regulations have made it harder to connect with people. I have heard comments saying they can’t read peoples' emotions, giving them much less information about other people's characters at first glance. Many people, including myself, feel they have become less socially confident. I have found that I have started to pay less attention to people and their appearances once everyone started wearing masks. From the early stages of life, we learn to make connections with people's faces, and without that, it feels as if we are blocked. Humans crave and need forms of connection and expression, and under quarantine, the way we do this has drastically changed. "Transcend" was a way to embrace this change. It shows that though the situation we are in is critical, there can be new forms of physical expression and connection to be discovered, ones that can be beautiful and inspiring. It would be interesting to make our masks be something that stands out and empower us, rather than hide us.
Who's Room
"Who's Room" plays with elements of sculpture and traditional painting techniques to challenge the distinctions we have been taught to make between the two.
Family Tree
Celebrating my mixed background, I created a twist to the traditional Japanese card game, Hana Fuda, by blending my Black cultural experiences into the playing card scenes in a seamless manner. I changed the rectangular shape of the card to a hexagon and pentagon forms that connect in a way that resembles a DNA molecules.
Nature's Breath
Nature's Breath was a piece reflective of the first several months of the COVID-19 pandemic and total lockdown. While there was a lot of pain and struggle during this period, this piece attempted to acknowledge the silver linings in the natural world. Animals and natural habitats had the rare opportunity to experience life without human presence and the natural world had a chance to breathe.
GAZES
One of the most instinctive ways humans express themselves is through their eyes. Growing up in my particular household, expressive conversations, faces, and lifestyles have played a constant role. Referencing photographs of my father who has very expressive and distinct eyes, I created a series of eyes using wood-burning and watercolor. The variety of depth and length in the woodblocks and panels indicate the dynamic and diverse nature held by conversations aroused by self-expression.