Watermelon, 2025

Fabric, foam, recycled t-shirts, yarn

40 x 24 x 3 in.

My work often takes the form of installations, creating spaces made of yarn that are raucously colorful and reminiscent of blanket forts. I'm inspired by childhood, both my own and the world of the kids I work with as an arts educator. Kids are not often the target audience of conceptual art, and that is something I'm aiming to change. Joy and play are profound concepts, so I decided to create a series of soft sculpture fruits specifically for kids to play with at a solo show I had in October 2025. They were a huge hit, as kids stacked them and swung them around in a choreography that came completely naturally to them.
My hope is that through prioritizing the experience of children in arts spaces, all people will find their own centers of joy and play, and will feel more connected to creative expression overall. This is a meaningful endeavor to me, as creativity is so inextricably tied to mental health and, according to numerous studies, is the opposite of anxiety. In a world as divided and stressful as ours, we desperately need to find creativity so that we may organize and thrive as whole people.

Courtesy of the artist