Statement 

I feel it can be both difficult to empathize with strangers and easy to be apathetic toward people we see as unimportant. It is my perception, that we can forget that each person has a life as complex as our own. Often, it isn’t until we start to care about a person that we concern ourselves with the person’s story and past.
      
This same apathy we have towards others is mirrored in our relationships with objects we encounter daily. In the buildings we inhabit, we are surrounded by infrastructure to which we seldom give much thought. Things like plumbing, ventilation, and structural components were created by craftspeople who have a nuanced understanding of their trade and have mastered its requisite skills. As a craft-based artist I relate to people in the trades for their technical proficiency and understanding of material, but I feel their work is often overlooked.  As a jewelry artist, I have the privilege of signing my work and wearing it in public. The objects created by people in the trades, however, are often left to silently stand without any reference to their creator.
      
​My work is about extending empathy to the objects I feel are neglected or forgotten. I concern myself with their past, their story and the people who brought these objects into existence. By reimagining often-overlooked objects as jewelry, I solicit empathy from the viewer. The curious viewer becomes interested with the importance, purpose, and origin of the object. Ultimately, my objective is for the viewer to reconsider, if only for a moment, the objects they encounter in their daily lives as well as the people who made them.