I grew up in rural Illinois, on my family's farm, working in the fields and tending to animals. Although starkly different from my life as a ceramicist in Kansas City today, my background heavily influences my work. 

 

Back home, I primarily worked on my mother’s flower crops and tended to our flock of Dorper sheep. I spent a lot of my adolescence being a mother to orphaned lambs and finicky flower sprouts. In this way, I also experienced early on the ideas and expectations that revolved around “women’s work”. I often felt that there was a stigma attached to the work my Mom and I did, one that never followed my brothers. 

 

Now, using flowers as a symbol, inspired by my mother’s crop, I create floral trophies, designed to hold flowers that represent women and their labor, elevating them to a place of honor, fighting the societal stigma. These pieces stand monumental in size, built compositely, inspired by historical Dutch tulipieres and flower bricks. Their surface is bright with color, inspired by spring florals, covered in carvings derived from the baroque and rococo architectural periods, historically remembered for their sense of grandeur. 

 

With these pieces, I hope to shift how we view and value the work of women, both in traditional roles and modern settings.