In the beginning, my art takes many organic and indistinct forms. This sense of visual ambiguity is important for me, as it creates an environment that offers an opportunity for free and abstract thought. I prefer to say I “grow” my art rather than create it; an organic process in which each individual piece plays an active role and evolves within its own circumstance. My hope is to encourage the viewer to decide what I “grew” based on their own personal experience rather than making the subject matter distinguishable. Nature plays an important part of my artwork, both as a source of material and inspiration. In my view, nature is the purest form of art and by using sticks and other found objects from the natural world, I try to capture some of that essence and remind the viewer that nature is itself an art. My artwork develops from a basis of freedom and exploration. For me, the process exceeds the importance of the piece and I am guided by mistakes and roadblocks; I use them as an opportunity to learn the potential of the materials and myself. I work in collaboration with my materials rather than in command, allowing each individual characteristic to guide me. I stray from the traditional, hoping to discover new possibilities, encourage organic development, and thus, new ideas. With every piece, I seek to free myself from the limitations and assumptions of what art can be and what can be accomplished with diverse materials. My work spans many mediums and subject matter, but the underlying theme in every piece is the idea that each part must come together to create a unifying entity. For me, an overwhelming theme in our natural world is that everything exists simultaneously – separately and symbiotically, on a micro and macro level. It’s a principal I am captivated by and naturally respond to in my artwork, envisioning every little piece as an integral part of the whole.