My thesis project is a series of sculptural self-portraits, some of which incorporate lights or moving images. I’ve used a wide variety of media: all found, surplus, or scavenged objects and materials. I consider myself a gleaner, gathering broken pieces, saving scraps, collecting leftovers, and then transforming them. Each material has significance, whether it’s metaphorical, cultural, or personal, and I aim both to discover that meaning in the process of making, and reveal it to my audience.

These fragmented materials represent the broken, lost, and reconstructed nature of visual perception. We recognize and remember faces as individual features, then fill in the blanks to construct a cohesive whole. By making these many iterations of my face, I’m trying to clarify the complex questions of what defines a face, and why faces are so important.