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Artist's Statement |
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As an undergraduate student of both anthropology and sculpture I studied African society while I cast bronze pieces inspired by what I read in books and saw in collections. However, not until several months later upon living and working in Mali, West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer did I fully grasp the power a mask may hold.
My latest body of work is an exploration in mask making inspired by West African and Northwest Coast Native American ceremonial objects I have witnessed and studied. Masks interest me for their visual power and their use as spiritual and religious objects. I am motivated by a fascination with cultures of the world and a longtime interest in traditional African religions. In this body of work, I seek to fuse the zoomorphic and stylized creations of multiple ethnic groups while capturing their vibrancy.
I want my masks to embody a sense of power and cultural identity while stimulating the viewer to ask important questions about their own sense of these concepts. On a base level, masks transform the identity of the wearer. On another level, masks provide for a collective cultural identity. I want viewers to consider the relationship between individual identity and social identity. What elements form our individual identity? What shapes our social identity?
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