Etude 1 - Rich Mauve Sculpture

I’m a metal and textile artist, who takes a single metal thread and creates meticulously stitched, hand-crocheted sculptures. Stitches are connections, building relationships and memories. Most recently from Hawai’i and currently living in Japan, I am fascinated with juxtapositions and transformations in our ever changing world. Manipulating copper wire with textile techniques, I create artworks that combine the hard, masculine properties of metals with soft, feminine textile techniques. Stitching these two elements together transforms each piece into a stronger, more cohesive sculpture. Whether it is bare copper, anodized copper with color, or a copper core wrapped in gold, I love how the simplicity of a single hook and copper wire threads become a voluminous, organic installation in my hands. Hand-crocheting is a meditative action for me. The smooth copper wire glides through my fingers and over my crochet hook. Like the ensō, its single meditative loop represents a single moment of open creation, each crochet stitch I make is created from a varying number of loops. Each completed loop is the copper thread telling the story in sculptural form. My work process is interdisciplinary. I often take photographs of my fiber and wire textile pieces to see the work from another vantage point. Photographing my work also allows me to play with creating two-dimensional artworks while enjoying the physicality of creating three-dimensional sculptural forms. The rich tropical waters around my home state of Hawai’i continue to inspire my favorite color gradations; the deep turquoise blues to sea foam greens to the silver sparkles of water splashing my toes in the sand. My works are tactile in the same way I enjoy the beach. The wire flows through my hands inspiring me to take the conflicting materials and techniques and build balanced artworks.