ARTIST STATEMENT

Hey, I need some help.

Hi, of course. What’s up?

I am a bit confused.

What about?

I’m supposed to outline my entire artistic practice and worldview in paragraph form on a flat surface.

Oh, death to the paragraph.

It’s just... my mind is a home for a vast cornucopia of ideas and visions, and I am trying to translate them into a global language.

Ah, so you are attempting to communicate with others through your art?

Creating dialogues is secondary. There is an itch, twitch, scratch in my brain. My art is an exodus of my thoughts, and because they’re so volatile and ephemeral, my practice is quite multi-disciplinary.

Across your weavings, paintings, and digital work, grids appear frequently—

—Grids and dogs are my two favorite things in the world.

It’s very graphic.

I’m also a graphic designer. I love aesthetically-pleasing things. My work is about the object, the physical piece in front of the viewer. Maybe it will generate a meaning to someone because of their individual experiences, but I am here to bring beauty into this world.

You want to make over the world?

Exactly. And if I can’t, I’ll make my own world.

Why are you so attracted to textiles and color?

I’ve always been bitingly aware of color, which is not only a causation of being a creative soul, but also from growing up in a biracial household and as a minority. Color is such a powerful concept. It transforms your emotions, perceptions, behaviors, and life experiences. If you control the color narrative, you control your viewers’ mind.

What about textiles?

My parents are both economists—

—Could that be where your love for grids, graphs, and maps originated from?

I am not my parents, what a heinous suggestion. They’re about as unartistic as one can be, but my two grandmothers are extremely creative and crafty. My Oma Rodgers taught me how to sew and my Oma van der Meulen taught me how to knit. I have been searching for many years for my artistic practice soulmate and recently, I have been trying to reignite the forms I gravitated to as a child: weaving, sewing, knitting, anything involving textiles.

Secondly, I spent my childhood summers traversing Northwest Europe, and the infinite multitude of textiles and colors there are imprinted in my mind—velvety tulip petals, uneven cobblestone roads made slick and dark in the rain, oscillating tiled roofs, soft light warming rough wooden panels, peaceful meandering canals, and muddy banks. Even though I am constantly growing and learning, I am still the same person. My root core is the same. I feel like I am expanding on the predilections I’ve had since I was a child—a maturation if you will.

So to summarize, correct me if I’m wrong,  we have a core collection of likes—tastes, style, things one gravitates to—and as we grow, our comprehension and translation abilities increase, so our works objectively become stronger but at the root of each piece is something you’ve been attracted to since you were young.

Wow, yes. I should talk to you more often.

I am you, stupid.

How should I present this?

Leave it as a dialogue. Death to the paragraph form, remember?

You’re the best.

We’re the best. Don’t get it twisted.

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