Studio Art

Here are some of my favorite works I’ve made in my Studio Art classes at Grinnell College! These works display my technical skills across mediums, like drawing, painting, and sculpture.

ART-315: Adv Studio: Contemp Practices

During this sustained investigation, my work engaged with what is considered worthy of display, the relationship between the observer and object, and how displayed objects mediate pride, taste, and memory. Using wood, clay, and metal, I combined media to create pieces that begin with the idea of a trophy, which I see as the material remnant of memory, and transform it through adjustments in subject, scale, and number. I incorporated elements of taxidermy, not to preserve, but to explore the absurdity that flows from elevated symbols of pride, as they are divorced from their original context and stuffed with humor. For the sportsman, taxidermy is full of memories tied to place, people, and stories. I transformed these themes into new forms that challenge authority and what is deemed ‘trophy-worthy.’ My work initiates conversations about value: what we choose to elevate, commemorate, or adorn our walls with, and how taste is constructed and showcased.

Large Mount Bass

2025

 

Wood, oil-based stain, spar urethane, white low-fire clay, underglaze, glaze, epoxy, nails

11” x 34” x 5”

Bull Horns

2025

 

Steel, wood, oil-based stain, spar urethane, spray paint, epoxy, wood glue

9” x 57” x 9.5”

Observers

2025

 

Wood, oil-based stain, white low-fire clay, underglaze, glaze, epoxy

7” x 20” x 2.5”

Clown

2025

 

Antlers, spray paint, wood, oil-based stain, white low-fire clay, underglaze, glaze, epoxy

16” x 13” x 10”

Amidst Rurality: Smith Gallery Show

Amidst Rurality explores the intersection of nature and rural places through the lens of functional and non-functional artworks. The show reflects my understanding that many of my formative memories came through a rural environment. Works are tied to place in a variety of ways: charcoal and micron pen drawings of amazing places I’ve run, trophies from hikes and hunts, ceramic decaled notes from my loved ones that symbolize the only physical interaction I get with them when so far away from home, and the idea of loving place so much that I wanted to fix it and beautify it for others. Works exalt the romantic notion of the open road through a rustic, imperfect tactile sense of organic form.

Stand-Alone Works

Worn Blue

2024


Oil on hand-stretched canvas

20” x 24”

Audacious and Multimodal

2025

 

Clay instruments made from recycled clay and underglaze

3” x 12” x 12” (in circle arrangement)

 

Performance Pieces

Song 1 – Mary Had a Little Lamb

Song 2 – Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Song 3 – Ode to Joy