I think making work allows me to process and create a tangible version of the layered and complicated experiences of my everyday. It is a way to isolate and recreate objects or situations to discover a bit of sense amongst it all. Some may mow the grass to clear their head; I create and tell animal stories. Is what I do that unique, that different? Why do people find what I do so strange sometimes? Like they are not strange. Like they don’t do odd things at work or think about ideas that are completely fantastical. Making work allows me to process my feelings and experiences through the contemplation and construction of objects. Sometimes I have taken breaks from making art. When this occurs I begin to notice emptiness within myself. I feel lost, I feel bored, and I begin to overcomplicate simple projects in my everyday like hanging a shelf in my apartment or making a gadget to pull hair out of the shower drain.
One may ask why do you create tales about animals? The animals are a way for me to create characters that more closely relate to people I meet or have met. Sometimes I look back on a piece and think that it is strange how the narrative in a work closely related to a failing relationship of mine or a funny conversation at the pub. But don’t think this opens up the question of what animal I may be in a story? Because sometimes I just don’t know yet. And sometimes I don’t want to admit that I am the Fox when I really wanted to be the Owl.