Jars from the 2009 exhibition, Your Mother Is In The Basement. Photograph of Preserving Summer,
Archival Digital Inkjet Print, 18 x 27 “ in an edition of 3 2010 from the exhibition An Enlarged Heart.
Introduction
by Erika deVries
The places I inhabit, beginning with girlhood, womanhood, and now motherhood are my life process and reflect in my artwork. As I age I become increasingly aware of presence and absence and my eye and heart are acutely attuned to these phenomena.
Transformations, large and small, occupy my daily visual thoughts and visceral feelings. They happen rapidly and seemingly moment to moment when living with young children. New words and their meanings, new movements, skills, and experiences are part of the every day parade; I am staggered by each moments fullness then disappearance. I re-learn the power of words as my children learn their power and literacy for the first time. These domestic, daily transformations highlight control, power relationships, and the things we have no control over in our lives, such as loose teeth, physical growth, and change. I have a compulsion to listen and share. As it is with growth and change, my work and process can make me uncomfortable, but mostly it keeps me hopeful.
I create works across disciplines out of a voraciousness and desire for a whole experience. I have worked with internet-based projects, photography, performance, video, craft handiwork, neon, radio, lenticular imaging, and sound. Connecting these processes meaningfully, sensually and visually modeling the personal connections and relationships I wish to make through the work and my life.