Statement
Most of my sculptural works are representations of pretty, west coast scenes. They are relief works made from natural materials I collect from Vancouver Island beaches: shells, rocks, driftwood, bark. I also gather just as many human-made materials from the same locations: plastic, rubber, metal, tile. These are the materials that scare me and make me feel guilty for being human. They make me ask, “Am I a part of the cure or am I part of the disease?”(Coldplay, 2002). When I decided to create my first relief sculpture made entirely of human-made materials, I didn’t want to create another ‘pretty, west coast scene’. I wanted it to be a statement about human impact on the environment. The plastic ‘mountains’, vinyl ‘beaches’, VHS tape ‘waves’, rubber ‘creatures’, and other found objects represent a landscape that was once beautiful but is now tainted by humanity. I also chose a smoky mat on which to attach these objects to represent a sky altered by wildfires. The work represents my unease about how my life-long impact may have contributed to these objects being on the beaches, here in BC and elsewhere.
