Role: Artist [creator of The Bale in the Terra plaza]

What was your journey to become an artist?

Art and the practice of making it has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I studied industrial design in college and began exploring sculpture and our relationships with the environment  early on. After multiple apprenticeships, residencies, grants, and fellowships, I began working as a full-time artist; and public art commissions have allowed me to work at the scale that I typically envision my art at, as well as maintain a career. I’ve exhibited throughout the state and country and continue to develop studio work while taking on the larger projects. This has been an ever evolving path of learning and development and one that I am grateful for.

How do you classify or categorize your art?

I don’t categorize my art in general, but my project, the Bale, is a sculptural work in the public realm intended to create spatial relationships in the plaza that compliment and inform the viewers understanding of the campus, and their own orientation; while presenting a playful component that calls attention to one of the recognizable products of industrialized agriculture.

What would you like others to know about your art installation at CSU Spur?

The Bale is inspired by the inherent sculptural qualities of a round hay bale, introducing a passage and space to be entered and visually explored.

How do you hope visitors engage with your art?

Most of what I do as an artist in the public realm is intended to enhance our internal dialog with our surroundings, and in this case, of the CSU Spur campus at the National Western Center. I want to stimulate our curiosity with the National Western Center environment and expose dynamic conditions that are often taken for granted in our day to day lives.