Portrait of the Artist in Her Wood Period

Way down in the comments somewhere, Michelle aka Deviant Deziner asked about my work while I was in the Wood/Furniture department at California College of Arts and Crafts.  So that explains this post!  The photo above was my senior thesis:  a bed fully enclosed by woven mohair yarn to provide a  place for metamorphosis.  I'm still obsessed with the major themes of this piece:  repetition, lush materials, pattern and its psychological effects, and of course the life cycle of moths.  (And yes, I sleep in it!)

This project also deals with pattern, as underneath each candle concentric circles bleed into their neighbor's.  The candles were hand-dipped and hand-braided and the candle holders were from an apricot branch pruned earlier that year.  I like it when people see different meanings in the same piece, but for me it discusses the odd combination of brotherhood and competition in the studio as we all toiled away in an attempt not to "burn out."

These tokens busied my hands to give my mind a rest while trying to get over designer's block when making my senior thesis project.  I love how they fit in the hand and the rings that appear during the sanding process.  It makes you think they have a higher purpose than just the output of nervous energy!