“I’M CUTE!” Exclaims a contestant on the program, “Toddlers and Tiaras.” Approximating that voice into a monumental scale sculpture, my work focuses on the exclamatory nature of pageant girls. These girls are their environment, not just people inhabiting it. Creating a psychological state of people, my work is a visual slice of contemporary social-cultural identity. I use cast silicone and scour the web for images of people that affect me, but think my work is also about people from my past living in the south. I make imaginary people using references from my native Georgia or New York City. I think strong ties to storytelling of the south have affected the way I project my ideas. Vernacular influences have affected my sculptures. While living in Los Angeles I started developing my techniques in silicone by talking to people in the cinematic special effects industry. I thought the raw quality of those works, aspects one might consider mistakes, made the pieces more alive.

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