My work involves looking at social interactions and activities and calls into question ideas and associations through the use of images of animals, toys, and household items. By doing this indirectly through the use of these objects/characters and allowing them to interact in a tableau having the feeling of being a frozen moment from a story, I am able to create meaningful interactions between viewers and the works. The viewers may insert themselves and their experiences into the metaphor they see before them. The characters I have been selecting and incorporating have inherently carried many associations since they are tied to childhood, the home, and learning experiences, but I have been using them further as vessels to symbolize our own human traits. They have become personified. Indirectly, through the use of stories and images, people can see and observe themselves in a new light. We have been exposed to fables, parables, and myths, stories with hidden meanings and depth, all of our lives. This ability to assimilate ourselves into a story or image and to discover hidden meaning is something I have been experimenting with for some time. The significance of this and what it means in regard to how we think, perceive ourselves, and how we interact with others is of great interest to me, and it is these ideas I have been exploring.
I had been primarily experimenting with two-dimensional images, but this then grew into the need to incorporate three-dimensional elements. My focus of study in the area of Fine Arts has been in Printmaking. The Printmaking techniques which I have utilized in my research and are apparent in my thesis show include: relief, lithography, intaglio, and serigraphy as well as photomechanical applications. With the introduction of 3-dimensional materials, the result of my research has been to incorporate my work into an environment or installation. This has allowed both images and objects to interact directly and indirectly with one another. The fusion of the printed image with the three-dimensional characters has better enabled me to reach people and bring into question some of their beliefs about themselves and the world in which they take part.