Artist Statement
I began this series, Born in the air, as a homage to the capacity of mothers to endure the life-long sorrow which ebbs and flows following the death of their son or daughter. Such sorrow arises from enduring love. By chance, birds flew their way into my story. Born in the air, they arrived to support my earth-bound clay work. They held and then released my emotions while I expressed my private experiences of enduring sorrow through the forms of these women.
The companion birds are small enough to be held in the palm of a hand, evoking memories of love and serving as talismans of hope. The women are invested with qualities of grace, courage, acceptance, and ultimately, release.
By placing my trust in the malleable clay and letting it do its work, I was drawn into making a series of women with their companion birds. While each sculpture stands independently of each other—each woman with her unique story—the whole series can be read as a journey in which we emerge from our shared grief into the vitality of life. In this way, my story evolved from a singular focus on personal sorrow to an embrace of the communality of maternal sorrow.
After bearing witness to my work, I hope that others might find and settle into their own deeply personal stories. In this way, healing and connections happen.
