I often use gold in my work for its ability to straddle the line between opulence and fakery. It is a material freighted with importance; however, it can quickly become cheap or tacky and is often imitated to varying degrees of success. In certain pieces gold is used to elevate the lowliest of materials as a tongue and cheek jab at decorative elements. This can be seen as I painstakingly gild cardboard in 24 karat gold.

They are an examination of cast-off or overlooked forms that occupy the space around us. I question assumed hierarchies of objects, of taste, and markers of class, bringing concepts like importance, beauty, and decorative value into direct conversation with what is perceived as unimportant, worthless, and tacky. I am captivated by perceptions and intersections of dichotomies such as high-brow/low brow, beautiful and macabre, elegance and kitsch. 

below: arum box, cardboard, 24k gold, 52” x 66” x 2”