I am a mostly self taught artist currently living in Morgan, Utah with my husband and our pets. I began working with stained glass in 2018 after a small lesson from my Grandpa, who has worked with stained glass for as long as I can remember. I love the delicate, but extremely resilient, nature of glass. The process of creating stained glass is extremely meditative, and allows time for deep self reflection. In 2019, I began exploring some work with acrylic paint and began to feel drawn toward performance art. I like the idea of using my own body as a medium for expression, and also as a muse. After spending most of my life fostering a deep seated hatred of myself and my appearance, I am learning this year what it true self acceptance means, and my work is reflective of that.

Artist Statement

My work is very focused on my own experience navigating femininity and what it means to be a woman in our world today. Growing up in an environment where femininity had very rigid boundaries, specific roles assigned from birth, I wasn’t allowed much room to actually explore what being a woman meant to me. I also found myself wanting very much to conform to the stereotypical attributes found within these rigid boundaries of femininity. “Someone told me there’s a girl out there, with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.” If you search “hair and femininity” on Google, the first article that appears is a piece warning of the dangers of a woman having short hair. “It is a subconscious rebellion against men, a rejection of submission to the patriarchal authority and ultimately, defiance against God.” I am here to say that in fact, cutting my hair off was a very deliberate act of rebellion, and an intentional rejection of submission. After spending the better part of the last decade with hair that reached beyond my waistline, unburdening myself from the confines it created has been the ultimate act of escaping my own mental prisons. It has been a rebellion against the creation of an identity based on appearance. A rejection of allowing anyone’s opinion to influence how I live my life. A chance at tasting true freedom, an opportunity to shed self diminishing beliefs and an invitation to revel in the senses. A shedding of restrictive ideals and outdated views of womanhood. This process has provided a lens through which I am able to actually SEE myself for the first time. Preserving the hair and flowers in glass is symbolic of the way society tends to reduce femininity into beautiful, well defined boxes. Female sexuality is a commodity that is utilized to turn a profit, women often being reduced to an aesthetically pleasing stereotype that is simultaneously provoking and unthreatening. Who are you, without your hair?