A Venture into Connections Through Art

I have multiple facets of thought in my entire body of work, but my primary goal is to set up forms of communication through my art. The instruments I build are specific to me in that they are all instruments I have a deep connection with. This way, I have a full understanding of what feelings I want to evoke while playing them, and it helps when I have a feel for the body of the instrument when making it! My functional body of work is used as a conduit to for connections between communities, with a specific interest in forming connections and understanding between neurodivergent and neurotypical people through means of conversations while using my work. For instance having a conversation while making a meal or sitting down and eating it, or forming a bond between a shared interest.

Apart from that, I have thoughts connected with woodworking as a spiritual experience, social practice, and engineering study. I enjoy the idea of creating objects that hold the intention of being used in performance/sound making as a means of communication. I became interested in wooden vessels at first as a study in woodworking, but fell in love very quickly. Woodturning is very therapeutic to me, and I see it as a conversation between me and the wood, where the bowl gouge is our language. I see vessels as a means of communication, whether that be sitting at the table eating a meal with friends or family, or historically telling stories through the designs on the vessels.

As a craftsperson, the processes behind creating objects (both commercially and artistically) are deeply rooted in the woodworking culture. I believe these processes aren’t secrets held captive by those who make them, but rather universal truths that can be understood by anyone. I hold an attraction to exposing these processes. I want to become a master of my field of study, but I also believe I have an obligation to understand the history and spiritual importance of what I make. When I was researching the history of the djembe, I discovered that the making of the drum was spiritual, and the maker was obliged to make offerings to the spirits of the trees he cut down. With the Lengue tree, a sacrifice would be made to ask for permission to cut the tree for a djembe. It is thought that the drum contains three spirits. The spirit of the tree from which it was made, the spirit of the animal whose skin is played, and the spirit of the carver who cut the tree and who assembled the drum. I want to hold my artwork in this kind of reverence, insofar as I work with wood and other materials that were at one point, living beings. One of the ways I do this is that each one of the vessels I turn has their own name, identity, and personality. These things come to me naturally as I am making the vessel, when I am having a conversation with the wood. Another way is through the functionality of the things I make. Wooden vessels, spoons, boxes, instruments, these things have purpose which gives new meaning and life to an otherwise dead and decaying object.