Statement - My Female Gaze

I honor the power, mystery, and complexity of women. I place them on a pedestal—not to idolize, but to illuminate. Pensive, poetic, and unapologetically sensual, my figurative sculptures interrogate identity, hybridity, and the multifaceted nature of womanhood.


A signifigant aspect of my practice engages in a form of soft activism rooted in historical narratives, feminist theory, social justice, and the (hidden) story of my African American ancestry. I am captivated by the intricate nature of identity and invested in the ongoing discourse around social constructs. I’m drawn to those suppressed or silenced histories that reveal overlooked truths. It is through this lens that I create my figurative sculpture.


My work explores the theme of cultural hybridity, weaving together mythology and stories from a range of traditions to infuse each piece with layered meaning. I incorporate symbols such as feathers, dogwood flowers, and books—objects that carry both universal significance and culturally specific associations. The Deer Woman, for instance, represents feminine strength in many Native American traditions and has resonances with kindred archetypes found in Celtic and Nordic mythologies.


Mirrors and reflective surfaces are recurring motifs in my work, serving as metaphors for identity and tools for introspection. The mirrored face becomes a device for self-contemplation or an invitation for the viewer to see themselves within the sculpture. In Mirror, Mirror, the reflective cyborg visage meets its own gaze in a mirrored surface below, creating an infinite echo that gestures toward futurism, deepened by the stylized expressiveness of my sculptural language.


The idea of a breastplate first appeared on the sculpture, The Journey, drawn in glimmering gold luster with markings borrowed from a feline. The markings also appear on the back of The Unknown and are unique to each being. I imagine all women have a metaphorical mechanism that acts as a breastplate for self-protection, self-preservation and to keep our power safe. When I made What We Carry, I was thinking of the beautiful armor and decorative metal work of the Renaissance and my life’s journey, but also in the collective sense, women’s life journey. The dogwood flowers represented reliability, durability, and affection in the Victorian era. The hanging shards of mica and beads, fragments of our lives. When I tried to fire the piece a third time, pushing the temperature beyond its limit to achieve an improved glaze result, a slit opened above the heart. I chose to leave it as is, feeling the universe was contributing to the work. Now, as women's reproductive rights are under attack here in the US, this work takes on a particular resonance.