Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where do you get your inspiration?  

Originally, my inspiration came from recurring nightmares that I had when I was a little kid. The nightmares were like being trapped in an enormous knot that continued forever in every direction. In the negative spaces of the knot these kind of see-through blobs formed and shape-shifted and ballooned towards me - kind of looking like things from my life, like flowers, bugs, fish, plants, clouds, or characters, but never quite - they were suggestive of these things, but never specific or definable. I would be trapped in this never-ending knot and blob “landscape” and wake up terrified. When I began my full time art practice, I was making paintings and works on paper depicting those nightmares in a way that I liked them and was happy to live with them.. I went about this by changing the palette (the nightmares were always dark, black, grey, dark brown and dark crimson red) and the compositions in which these nightmare “landscapes” were presented. I always maintained the basic structure of the nightmares though. When I started working with plastic debris, it was originally because I thought it might be possible to make sculptures that were like the forms from those nightmares. The material educated me about the problem of plastic pollution — I really didn’t know how big of a global issue it was until I started making work with it. Nowadays, I get my inspiration from forms found in nature at all scales, combined with the forms found in my childhood nightmares. It is a meditation on transforming a global nightmare now, not just a personal one.

2. How do you create your pieces of art ? Do you melt the plastic or do you use special tools?

I use the following different techniques for working with plastic waste: threading, weaving, sewing, fastening with hardware (rivets or crimping beads), injection welding, ultrasonic welding and most recently 3D printing. I use many specialty tools. Below are links to the specialty tools.