Artist Statement
Muscle’s gel phenomenons relate an uncanny, visceral experience: position sense. Our bodies’ orientation in respect to gravity guides the cascading tissues and sinews. In difficult cases of muscle atrophy, grimacing seems obligatory.
My work is the connective tissue of body language, anatomy, and appearance. I suture leather into orifices, cavities, and ambiguous, body-adjacent forms. The sculptures are thirsting, which, after all, is desiring. By constructing forms that are (touchingly) just a suggestion, the work reflects how queer people exist in all places at once: an oscillating state of self-protection, dissembling, and liberation. The works are a broken leg that didn’t heal properly; something that’s a glimmer from a childhood crash that, instead of a wince, is a Cheshire smile. Phantom muscle and bone pains can rattle, but here they comfort. Whether it’s the dirt coating my nostrils after a music fest, sweat dripping from the gym, pained motocross competitions, or euphoria from queer spaces of the night, the sculptures puncture with pleasure.
“Not My Bag! (After Paris Hilton)” 2025 Cheap leather bags, pigment 28 in (h) x 23 in (w) x 18 in (d)
“Leather Racks 1 and 2,” 2025, the artist's collection of leather, each 68 in (h) x 60 in (w) x 10 in (d) 2025
“Leather Racks 1 and 2” detail
“Leather Racks 1 and 2” detail
"Buell Dirt Crash," 2025, Heat-soaked and molded translucent leather, Buell Rider Motorcycle cables, cross-stitch sutures, vermiculite, 48 in h x 19 in w x 12 in
"Buell Blast!" 2025, My old Buell Rider motorcycle, Heat-soaked and molded leather, precious pigments, 26 in x 32 x in x 18 in
"The Morose Figure, Preserved," 2025, translucent leather, 27 in (h) x 18 in (w) x 10 in (d)
“Scarred Samples of the Figure (2),” 2025, collagraph prints of leather, 11 in (h) x 7.5 in (w)
"The Cartographic Figure (as Mad Spectacle)," 2025, leather (sourced from Mexico City, Chicago, and Indianapolis), lavender light, cross-stitch sutures, 40 in (h) x 63 in (w) x 14 in (d)
Detail of "The Cartographic Figure..."
“Scarred Samples of the Figure (1),” 2025, collagraph prints of leather, 11 in (h) x 7.5 in (w)
“The Figure Ravaged By The Sublime," 2024, brush-off leather, heat-soaked and molded translucent leather, cross-stitch sutures, neon, cable covers, 47 in (h) x 52 in (w) x 11 in (d)
Detail of “The Figure Ravaged By The Sublime,”
"A Sutured Figure in the Apocalyptic Night," 2024, Translucent leather, leather harnesses, neon, sweat droplets, mesh cable covers, 78 in (h) x 26 (w) x 24 (d)
Detail of "A Sutured Figure in the Apocalyptic Night”
“A Cramped, Eccentric Muscle,” 2024, Hand-and-machine sutured translucent and salvaged leather, dyed meat bags, found steel, 7 in (h) x 9 in (w) x 9 in (d)
“The Figure (Pierced) Regenerating From The Fragments,” 2024, Heat-soaked and molded translucent leather and weathered leather, salvaged leather, machine-and-hand sutures, window screen, neon, cable covers, steel, 70” (h) x 32” (w) x 28” (d)
Detail of “The Figure (Pierced) Regenerating From The Fragments”
“An Imputrescible, Closeted Figure,” 2024, Heat-soaked and molded weathered leather, sweat droplets, neon, cross-stitch sutures, mesh cable covers, (33 h) x 22 (w) 18 (d)
Detail of “An Imputrescible, Closeted Figure”
“A Phantom Figure, Lacrimating in the Night,” 2024, Translucent leather, leather harnesses, neon, sweat droplets, mesh cable covers, dyed meat bags, 78 x 26 x 24
Detail of “A Phantom Figure, Lacrimating in the Night”
“Hidebound Echoes (Temporally Exposed)," 2024, Oil, encaustic, and dyed meat-bags on salvaged couch leather, 22 in x 22 in
“The Figure Sutured, Punctured, and Re-Vamped," 2024, Machine-and-hand sutured salvaged leather, meat hooks, found steel, 33 in x 22 in x 19 in
“Hidebound Echoes (Future Shock),” 2024, Oil, encaustic, and dyed meat-bags on salvaged duffel bag leather, 32 in x 32 in
Installation image of solo exhibit "Revealed Armor: Leather and Light" at Epiphany Center for the Arts, May-July 2024
nstallation image of solo exhibit "Revealed Armor: Leather and Light" at Epiphany Center for the Arts, May-July 2024
“The Figure’s Re-Vamped Muscles,” 2024, Translucent leathers, leather harnesses, variety of other salvaged leathers, dyed meat-bags, found steel, 28 in (h) x 45 in (w) x 6 in (d)
Detail of “The Figure’s Re-Vamped Muscles”
“An Imputrescible Figure With A Punctured Thoracic,” 2024, Heat-soaked and molded leather and translucent leather, brush-off leather, cross-stitch sutures, neon, mesh cable covers, 20 (h) x 53 (w) x 12 (d)
Detail of "“An Imputrescible Figure With A Punctured Thoracic"