My sacred vessel is an urn. I have often thought about the strange ritual that is keeping an urn. I think about why it is so important to keep somebody's ashes in a container in their home. It is no longer that person, however, it is often so difficult to let somebody go, that in a sense, it still feels that you have that person with you. Also, I was thinking about a conversation I had with my mother. I don't exactly remember how it came to this, but eventually we were talking about being cremated versus being buried. Out of nowhere she says, "I'd rather be Cremated", as casually as if she had said "I think I'll have some tea". It really struck me and I have never been able to get that out of my mind.
My work is a kind of bust of a person, detached between the jaw and the rest of the head by a set of virtabrae. I have always been fascinated with bones and anatomy, and I am trying (in a lot of my work) to litereally stretch the figure beyond it's boundaries without appearing too cartoonish. I want my work to still maintain a sense of realisim without being too ridiculous to the point where it cannot be taken seriously. I also was trying to get the idea across of my hand being in the work by highlighting some of the parts where I attached the different sections of the sculpture. I thought that but highlighting the seams, I would be in a sense keeping the spiritual and emotional ideas maintained without denying the fact that I was using tangible and real materials to discuss these issues.