My work and research is focused on sustainable and conscious place making that expresses human dignity as the central and most important role of design and art. By bringing the skills of an artist and architect together, I combine the logical methodologies for architectural research with the flexible, novel problem solving skills of a fine artist who is interrogating the auspices for sustainable language and developing a methodology for gauging the impact for design through lived experiences.
The architectural design research thesis I completed in 2020, “On Frozen Water,” focused on situational place-making as uniquely sustainable, by demonstrating how form can express embodied energy and green technologies ability and failings to support the design of a figure skating rink that prioritized its atypical central user group as source of creative possibility in design, rather than a limitation to design.
I focus my artistic research so it functions in concert with ornamentation and ritual in occupied space. I focus on materials and processes that require meditative interaction with my body. Through the act of making and process driven research my work prompts discussion on the nature of conscious occupation and place-making within the context of human bodies moving through space. I use jewelry that is intentionally designed to prompt critique of traditional masculine roles when dealing with loss and familial fracturing. Through my own personal experiences with loss when compared with historical conceptualizations of mourning in the late 19th century when compared with present socially acceptable mourning practices. As a maker I work continually in multiple forms of media, from work in metal and plastic, printmaking especially etching and lithography, to glass, ceramics, fibers, wood, and digital media, I view the interdisciplinary melding of techniques as essential to the application of ideas to physical and digital spaces.
Teaching is an essential part of my practice regardless of whether it is as a designer, an artist, or both. I’ve been a TA for introductory classes in architecture, volunteered teaching time for drawing courses and metalsmithing workshops with students. I approach teaching with the phrase “fail early and often, and in front of your teacher” I encourage students to learn by trying and failing and reevaluating their path to success rather than immediately forcing my way onto them. This methodology applies to every area, in which I am an instructor from figure skating lessons to forging. I foster an environment that prizes learning through trial and error with course correction in a healthy and supportive atmosphere.
I believe it is imperative to push the boundaries of research by “getting your hands dirty”.This means that I am constantly seeking out and building a network of people who share my passion for sustainability and disabilities studies conjoined with expressive, creative practices, from in institutional settings or as lived experiences. I am fundamentally “interdisciplinary” as an architect, artist, designer, jeweler, print maker, writer, figure skater, and human. I approach research and teaching in the same way, by relying on the interdependence of study and lived experience to disseminate ideas and techniques that improve human dignity for as many people as possible.