Artist Statement:

 

"In this series of work, the figures of various sizes are created in clay and transform into animals in attempt to depict harmony between humankind and nature through anthropomorphism. The figures develop animalistic aspects of elongated necks, teeth and skin of the animal they represent to emphasize the emotional, cognitive and instinctual similarities between animals and humans. The female nude, a recognizable symbol that appears throughout the history of art, attracts the viewer while the realistic animal heads simultaneously repulse them. Their bodies contort and shift to employ an attractive sense of nudity that becomes obscured and oddly more naturalistic as it transforms into the mask-like animal head. My artwork has a surreal and seductive quality due to the intricacy of detail and bold colors produced from the unpredictable nature of the raku firing process."