The idea of wearable art came from a brainstorming session with my ceramics professor at UCF Chris Thomas, who had a lightbulb moment saying “how awesome would it be for you to make peacock armor and wear it around!” (I was making a lot of peacock feather pieces in that class.)
I was taking beginning sculpture in the same semester and learning about resin casting, finding natural and man-made objects to cast. So began the interest in wearable art and the balance between natural and unnatural things, which later transformed into using photography and self portraiture to create characters while wearing these pieces in an empowering sort of performance.
This piece started freeform without any base structure because I wanted it to feel organic, letting the pieces fit together how they wanted. Other wearable sculptures followed the same process.
“Pinecone” later won the JR Hopes Scholarship for sculpture.
