ABOUT

Bio

I was born in Billings, Montana, and have spent most of my life in the rural Mountain West. I graduated from Worland High School in 2018 and got my Associates of Art from Southwestern Oregon Community College in 2020. During the pandemic, I went home to Worland where I was able to experience and appreciate rural life from a new perspective. After Covid had calmed down enough in my region, I returned to higher education by enrolling at the University of Wyoming in January 2022. In 2023, I went on a study abroad program, which took me to Japan. I spent 4 ½ months living and exploring the country, in a city called Nishinomiya, about an hour outside of Osaka. In 2025, I graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I have been working as post-baccalaureate assistant at the University of Wyoming for the past year. I currently live in Laramie, Wyoming.

Artist Statement

I grew up living in rural Wyoming where I was surrounded by ranches and farmland. This isolation means that people rely on what the earth is able to produce, which gives me an appreciation for the preciousness of materials, and an admiration for the gardeners and farmers that produce the food we eat. Additionally, growing up around agriculture informed my understanding of boundaries not just as demarcation of perimeters, but also as healthy separations between plants, as there are some plants that grow well together such as tomatoes and carrots, and others that must be separated. Boundaries help me to differentiate between materials, ideas, and imagery. I use limitations as guidelines for experimentation, as well as for guardrails that keep my work and ideas in line. These concepts empower me to explore just how much I can do within limits, and I find it inspiring to have specific perimeters in which I can work.

In my functional wares, boundaries and limitations appear in the surface decoration. Many types of crops are planted on geometrically shaped fields, usually squares and circles. The crops in the square fields are watered through flood irrigation, which, from an aerial view look like lines carved from the earth. The channels on my vessels reference the furrows in the fields and the geometric shapes mimic the shapes of the fields themselves. The plants on my functional work flourish around the shapes; they are not restricted nor obstructed. This is a reference to the cultivation of food crops, and how humans have mastered the ways in which best to grow them. On my vessels, I use bands of uncarved clay to neatly contain the imagery within the space allowed. This not only looks nice, but it is a way for me to organize the imagery, much like the way in which a farmer splits his field to organize his crops.

In my sculptural work, I explore boundaries between materials and between contradictory concepts. The rigid yet fragile ceramic contrasts with the flexible yet sturdy characteristics of the fabric. Fabric and clay are both materials that are rooted in the beginning of human civilization, and that is one of the reasons I think they work so well together. Both materials have been shaped by human hands for thousands of years and will be shaped by human hands for thousands more. In concept, I explore the value or ordinary objects and subjects. By recreating them in clay and fabric, I am giving them reverence. I am demanding that pantry food and little goldfish be regarded with honor and deep thought, rather than thrown away once their use is complete. It is in the conflicting boundary between material and concept that keeps me exploring how far I can push the limitations of actual value vs perceived value.