Cognitive Distortion I Sculpture

My work utilizes silk as a medium to capture, interpret and cope with the chaotic and uncontrollable realities of the world around me. My interest in this material was born out of my research at a biotech start up, which uses silk protein to stabilize vaccines. The work I do is grounded in repetition and meditation. When I acquire the silk, I separate the large hank of silk into hundreds of smaller bundles of about 200 strands each. After hand-dying the bundles, I weave the four-foot strands individually into a shadowbox-like frame that is completely wrapped in a polyester burlap. I attach the silk to the frame by hand-sewing it to the burlap and then tying it in place using tweezers. This is repeated over and over again, hundreds of times, until the piece is complete. As I create, I am driven deeply into self-reflection and meditation. I use the work to disconnect from my thoughts and impulses and guide me into a flow state.