Found Anthologies

Artist Statement

In 2021, my father sent me a box filled with vintage paper doll clothes. These garments had been meticulously cut out decades before and sadly, the paper dolls they once dressed were nowhere to be found. My dad knew that I could breathe new life into these forgotten relics, and they had indeed found the perfect home with me. I eagerly took them out and began experimenting, trying the clothes on various animal illustrations from old books I had hoarded over the years. Among my collection was a Golden Book of Birds from 1954, and to my delight, the clothes fit the bird illustrations perfectly. I spent several months carefully cutting out each bird from the book and pairing them with just the right outfits.
 
Around this same period, my friend David gifted me some old menus from a Russian restaurant. The covers featured women beautifully dressed in traditional costumes from various regions, their mysterious expressions captivating my imagination. I cut them out as well and began playing with different backgrounds, allowing an entire world to emerge from these collages.
 
I stored them all in plastic sleeves in a large binder and started tearing out backgrounds from other books that complemented their narratives. Although I had no concrete plans for them, I couldn't stop thinking about the intricate stories they began to tell to me. I envisioned an era where these new avian hybrids, along with their female guardians, ruled the universe.
 
During COVID-19, I decided to make resin ornaments as Christmas gifts for my family. Having never worked with resin before, I thought it would be a fun challenge to create glittery keepsakes from some of my favorite family photos. I quickly became obsessed with achieving "the perfect pour," ensuring no bubbles remained once the resin cured. I must have poured around 50 ornaments (my poor family!). Gradually, my technique improved, and I learned how to stir the resin properly and how the layers built upon each other after each pour.
 
My ex-husband Trae suggested I try layering the bird people against backgrounds, using resin to create a sense of depth between each layer. Intrigued by the idea, I gave it a try. The first piece I created, Zero, consisted of three shallow layers. Over the next two years, I devoted myself to cutting and pouring, using only paper and resin to bring this fantastical new world to life.

Music inspired these pieces as well. I was (am) a big Smashing Pumpkins fan in the 1990s and know every word to every song. I spent hours watching their videos when I was younger. One day in my studio, I realized I had subconsciously been creating an extension of the story started by Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, specifically the song Tonight, Tonight. The color palette, the characters, the universe, the moon — they all poured out of me and into these pieces.

Also during this time I remembered a friend telling me I would love the Mozart opera The Magic Flute. I googled the synopsis only to find my work mirrored the story there as well. A Prince and his companion, a bird catcher, seek to rescue the daughter of the Queen of the Night who has been captured by an evil sorcerer. I had never heard the opera or seen any visuals associated with it but it was as if it sang to me throughout my process. I was amazed to find the stage art for the opera mirrored exactly my imagery right down to the way the artist handled the color of the sky. It was mine as well.

These revelations and connections about my work and their true source material made me a true believer in the collective unconscious. I am in awe of how ideas can travel through artists and take them to unexpected and familiar places throughout the journey of creation.