My work explores the theme of mystery- the unknown and the unknowable- expressed as things hidden and things revealed.
I believe some things will always remain inexplicable, for while we can employ science, our senses, and our minds to help us understand, it seems there is always another question behind the answer and a farther back to go, all the way to the moment before the beginning of Time. I see this state of unknowing as a rich and positive realm where awe, wonder, delight and curiosity all stir within. Here all things are possible and nothing disappoints.
I make sculptural jewelry, artist books, and small metal-based mixed-media sculptures that reference archaeology, early science, alchemy, and old religious rites. Catholicism, archaic pagan forms from my Lithuanian heritage, sky-watching, and hours spent in Chicago museums have provided me with rich sources of imagery upon which to draw. I employ architectural elements and geometric forms to provide a structure of order and rationality, as I explore our relation to the irrational.
Jewelry interests me as a portable medium, akin to travellers’ pocket shrines, reliquaries, amulets, and talismans, while the sculptures are reminiscent of Renaissance watchmakers' table works. I make books, boxes, lockets, and caskets that need to be opened and/or manipulated in order to divulge their contents. Other pieces keep their secrets safely hidden under gems or behind screens. The scale and nature of my work is intimate, intended to slow the viewer down, drawing one in to pause, consider and question what is seen; the answers are most often ambiguous.
Metal- base and precious, ferrous and non-ferrous- is a natural choice for these pieces; enduring and formed by fire, it is associated with alchemy and sacred geometry. It is also a material of contradiction and mystery; hard and unyielding in a finished work, it can be made pliable and thus easily manipulated by one possessing “secret” knowledge. Copper imparts a sense of age and history, while silver and gold have a long tradition of use in ritual. Matte finished silver, without a darkening patina, has a particularly ethereal look.
I utilize gemstones chosen for their esoteric properties. In many cultures, such stones are believed to possess supernatural powers, or are seen as the tangible remains of events recounted in a culture’s stories- fallen stars, frozen tears, the captured light of the sun. Other materials related to myth and ritual- wax, bone, ashes, salt, thread, wool, and silk-are also incorporated into my work, while modern media such as Lazertran and acetate allow me to create the illusion of an insubstantial “dissolving” surface.
The world beyond space and time has been given many names, but the experience of it is still lies largely beyond words. In the end, I believe it best falls to art to describe the indescribable.
I believe some things will always remain inexplicable, for while we can employ science, our senses, and our minds to help us understand, it seems there is always another question behind the answer and a farther back to go, all the way to the moment before the beginning of Time. I see this state of unknowing as a rich and positive realm where awe, wonder, delight and curiosity all stir within. Here all things are possible and nothing disappoints.
I make sculptural jewelry, artist books, and small metal-based mixed-media sculptures that reference archaeology, early science, alchemy, and old religious rites. Catholicism, archaic pagan forms from my Lithuanian heritage, sky-watching, and hours spent in Chicago museums have provided me with rich sources of imagery upon which to draw. I employ architectural elements and geometric forms to provide a structure of order and rationality, as I explore our relation to the irrational.
Jewelry interests me as a portable medium, akin to travellers’ pocket shrines, reliquaries, amulets, and talismans, while the sculptures are reminiscent of Renaissance watchmakers' table works. I make books, boxes, lockets, and caskets that need to be opened and/or manipulated in order to divulge their contents. Other pieces keep their secrets safely hidden under gems or behind screens. The scale and nature of my work is intimate, intended to slow the viewer down, drawing one in to pause, consider and question what is seen; the answers are most often ambiguous.
Metal- base and precious, ferrous and non-ferrous- is a natural choice for these pieces; enduring and formed by fire, it is associated with alchemy and sacred geometry. It is also a material of contradiction and mystery; hard and unyielding in a finished work, it can be made pliable and thus easily manipulated by one possessing “secret” knowledge. Copper imparts a sense of age and history, while silver and gold have a long tradition of use in ritual. Matte finished silver, without a darkening patina, has a particularly ethereal look.
I utilize gemstones chosen for their esoteric properties. In many cultures, such stones are believed to possess supernatural powers, or are seen as the tangible remains of events recounted in a culture’s stories- fallen stars, frozen tears, the captured light of the sun. Other materials related to myth and ritual- wax, bone, ashes, salt, thread, wool, and silk-are also incorporated into my work, while modern media such as Lazertran and acetate allow me to create the illusion of an insubstantial “dissolving” surface.
The world beyond space and time has been given many names, but the experience of it is still lies largely beyond words. In the end, I believe it best falls to art to describe the indescribable.