Natural Form

Medium: Mixed media 

Size: 44 x 24 × 24 inches

Year: 2026 

I built this shell larger than life, so that its pattern, form, and iridescence become impossible to ignore. The shape was inspired by a snail shell, and the coloring by an abalone. This was my first sculpture, and I worked through several materials before settling on foam, drywall, sand, and plaster strips for the base. For the surface, I poured paint with silicone oil to make a ground, then added detail to mimic the marbling on a shell. I am most proud of how the layers of color and iridescence came together into a pattern I had not originally expected.

Escargot

Medium: Mixed media 

Size: 10 × 68 × 48 inches

Year: 2026

After finishing Natural Form, I wanted to see whether the spiral I had replicated in my shell could appear in a completely different organism. I found it in Escargot Rex Begonia, which I chose to build at nearly six feet wide so that the individual cells and the curl of the spiral would be seen in a way they would never be on a windowsill. I used the same process as in my previous sculpture, Natural Form, but as I  painted each cell of the leaf by hand, it took much longer because of how much repeated detail the surface holds. At this scale, the spiral no longer looks like botany but more like abstract structure, which is what drew me to the plant.

Wearing The Earth 

Medium: Mixed Media / Wearable Art 

Size: 36 x 24 x 24 inches

Year: 2026 

This mixed media project resulted in a wearable dress and pair of shoes created from moss, fabric, wire, dried and artificial flowers, and gold and gem details. I had long wondered why clothing so rarely uses raw, natural materials, so I designed and fabricated my own pieces inspired by the Earth. Securing the moss was the hard part; I ended up combining glue and stitching to hold it to the fabric. I photographed the piece myself, outdoors, in the kind of place that prompted its idea. It was my first time shooting my own sculptural work, and it showed me how much setting changes an art piece’s overall look and meaning.

About My 3D Work

My 3D Work asks viewers to notice what they have stopped seeing. A shell on a shelf goes unexamined because it is so familiar, and making one at four feet tall is a way of forcing one to see.

My interest in natural patterns began in fourth grade, when I was introduced to the Fibonacci sequence, and how it turns up everywhere in nature. I explore these patterns from two directions, enlarging and relocating. My sculptures enlarge, giving spirals and small details visibility. My wearable garments relocate: they take a material most people step over and place it on a human body, where it cannot be ignored. Barbara Hepworth shaped how I approach this work - her ability to carry organic shape into abstraction, and her use of marble, limestone, and alabaster, informs my own experiments with drywall, plaster, foam, sand, and found objects.