My work is immersive installations and sculptures. I use found, recycled and repurposed material—marine debris, textile remnants and mundane readily available household materials that retain a human imprint. This process of collecting is akin to foraging as I search for prosaic objects that would otherwise be discarded or overlooked. The act of searching is as much a part of my art practice as the objects I find. Wandering and wondering become integral gestures in the creative exercise.

I thrive on quiet and active observation; through daily walks, in my studio practice or through discussions with others. Observing allows me the space to decide to act or leave something be. Noticing activates me psychologically, visually and creatively. As I now live on an island, much of what I find and collect is marine garbage. What washes ashore tells a story of season, weather, neglect and the absence of protective environmental policy. Summer debris is plastic beach toy parts and picnic leave-behinds; fall is fishing lures and objects from the popular derby. A big storm brings in seaweed mounds full of bottle tops, straws, plastic tampon holders and boat maintenance parts. Fishing rope and lobster pot pieces are ever present—a harbinger of the entanglement suffered by marine mammals. My work is fundamentally a requiem to moments of lived experience in contemporary industrial culture.

Gathering, sorting, cleaning and drying the collection is an essential part of my practice, as I organize and look at what I have found. Each relic of waste represents life moments, a language both particular and universal. This language of objects is an archive of time and place. These surviving traces become ethereal objects of persistence, endurance and perseverance. Whether through assemblage, mark making or installation, the discarded and unexceptional is featured and accentuated, a visceral encounter with the overlooked, the unseen, the intimate interior.