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BLUSH (2005-06)Artist Statement
The works in this series represent a progression through memory and emotion related to child abuse. At the beginning, contrasting the victim and perpetrator was essential. In 1 in 3, I dipped girls camisoles in slip and fired them, burning the fabric out and leaving them as fragile shells. The drawn hangers provide no support to the camisoles. The statistic 1 in 3 refers to the number of American girls that have been sexually abused by age 18.
In Becoming One, I again dipped clothing in slip, but laid it into a mold of an enormous hand. Upon firing, the dress and hand became one, irrevocably joined together through the heat of the kiln.
Using the concept of erosion to express loss of innocence, 13 Red Dirt Girls were stenciled with unfired pulverized clay in the path of traffic and weather. Some disappeared quickly; others were visible six months later. In s_cr_t, dresses hung on a child-height wooden rack. They are dipped in the slip, but not fired; they could be washed out. Sometimes trauma is not permanently afflicting.
Abuse can turn girls toward or against each other. Friend and Foe depicts two dresses that are stiff from slip and a reanimating layer of latex paint. Sunk in plaster facing each other, two different scenes are visible through each of their backs. One has twin girls holding hands, and the other, wrestling. Aggression and love are simultaneously active in one relationship.
The final work is this series is Blush. I cut cross-sections out of skirts and turned them on their side. The dress bottom can be a portal through which positive or negative things pass. In the center of each is a hazy circle of blush, a natural response to both shame and excitement.
