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As a mixed media artist, some of my inspiration comes from the materials that best serve my ideas quickly and succinctly. This is why ready-made objects are often integrated into my work. These pre-manufactured trinkets lend to a playfulness and often are the impetus to set my creative process in motion. This work is designed to be peppered with humor and the absurd as part of the introspection of labels and identity. As humans, we have been categorized, identified, and cataloged in a way that assists in forming and enhancing our personalities, psyches, and appearances. My body of work and the collaborative ​Labels Project is​ a glimpse of our many collective descriptive labels put into a demonstratively visual language. Polaroid-style photos, Dymo-label maker labels, and a genuine neon light hint to my predilection to the 70s (the era of my childhood) and the technology of that time--simple, yet magical. These relics coupled with the imagery of tighty-whities and Chewbacca, objects that are featured in two other works, lends to my self-proclaimed label of nostalgia. Some works are playful, but bare my vulnerabilities regarding some of the labels that identify me-works such as: ​What Are You, Other Girl, I Love Meat, ADHD and Me, Pro-Choice, ​and ​Impostor hint to this; however, impressions about labels that others bear are explored in works such as: ​Endomorph, Ectomorph​, M​esomorph: Size Matters, Dad Bod​,​ I Know You Are- But What Am I​,​ Fighter​, and ​Married, Single, Divorced​.
Key to this work is the embrace of relational aesthetics as a significant component. Relational aesthetics emphasizes the experiential rather than the tangible and how shared responsibility creates the final outcome. ​The Labels Project is​ a form of New Genre Public Art that utilized collaboration as an art form. I invited others to share their personal labels at a series of events held at the Chrysler Museum, local breweries such as Benchtop, Smartmouth, and O’Connor’s, and Monticello Arcade shopping space. Participants took selfies, gave themselves four labels from a prompt, and then shared their labels with a stranger through a number of verbal prompts that allowed them to engage in both the participatory and dialogical art processes. The use of old fashioned materials (Fujimatic prints and embossed tape labels) in our digital aged society was an important element because a raw truth could be told-- there is no preview, no delete, nor spellcheck or editing filters--the real moment is captured in real-time. The collective contributions of my fellow artists created a culminating, public work that circulates a power that encourages a restorative artist/viewer/participant relationship through a presentation and discussion of “self labels”. I hope my work allows the viewer to reflect, think, and ponder upon labels and how we as humans navigate our world with them, for better or for worse. Throughout, this work represents both our individual and common traits in order to better understand one another.