Artistic Statement I sculpt to explore issues of identity:  How do we negotiate the elusive intersection between public and private selves, between self and culture?  I’ve looked to the archetypal myths and images of earlier cultures in order to create communitas—self within a community.  In ancient societies, art was a collective, interactive experience; viewers were participants not observers.  My sculptures encourage this active engagement.  Experienced visually, they appear as self-contained entities, obviously abstract yet evocative of body parts or otherworldly creatures.  Experienced physically, they are architectural shapers of space.  Their openings invite viewers in, beckoning them to enter their enigmatic spaces. My recent work examines the conflict between the need for physical intimacy and the fear of engulfment.  In art, as in life, I push and pull at boundaries, exploring places where intimate connections become viscous mergings and joined areas separate into distinct autonomous forms.  The sculptures exist at the edge of a collective pool of unconsciously observed imagery.  They entice viewers into a primal engagement with the erotic tension between the hollow abysses and the closed spheres, the penetrating tentacles and swallowing cones.  And I cover every sculpture with densely layered patterns and textures that stretch and distort with the swelling undulations of the forms—invocations to touch and explore.