DIRECTOR . PLAYWRIGHT . VISUAL ARTIST
ARTS LEADER, EDUCATOR, CREATIVE CONSULTANT
Artist Statement
I make art to wake myself up, to forge a path, to cross a threshold. I make art to approach the divine, the untamed, the naked, the raw. I make art to surrender to the present moment again and again, to show up with my full self in all its flawed and gifted humanity, to connect with other flawed and gifted humans and to celebrate life, death and the great epics that occur in our so-called ordinary lives. I make art to live a more courageous life.
Folklore is the blood and bones of my work. I create in the realm of contemporary myths and dark fables, each project a profound exploration of issues both timely and timeless. I continually return to themes of feminine empowerment and the awakening of the body, the ways in which we perpetuate cycles of oppression, and the human destruction of the natural world. My intent is to widen perspectives (starting with my own) by revealing truths about humanity, time, love, and power in ways both subtle and surprising. I invite audiences and participants to explore their own primal natures, their own souls stripped bare, the known world upended.
Images:
Theater: Sharon Huff as Mona in Whale's Wake.
Painting: Between Meals, mixed media
Installation: Bon Voyage plate, The Traveler's Inn
I am a storyteller. Director, playwright and visual artist, to me it is all story. Deeply interdisciplinary, I make story through many forms such as new plays, installations, immersive events and visual art. I unearth story through collaborations and solo inquiries, conversing with the land as much as with people. No matter what the project, participants, medium or context, I view the world through the lens of narrative. What narratives are we sharing, perpetuating, disrupting? What narratives are voiced and which ones remain silent? How do these narratives live inside our bodies and how do they manifest into the physical, sensory plane?
My process is hands-on, joyously messy, and tactile. The work: kinetic, visual, and sensory. I get excited about materials (ice, fire, water) or extreme expressions of tempo and scale. A beard: blue, 20 feet in length descends from the sky, a giant serpent skeleton winds its way around the audience, a concrete world grows fur, a house becomes a whale, a base jumper gets caught in perpetual free fall... I relish the great fun of making the impossible appear on stage.
