Female

I am a metal clay artist working in my native home of Northwest Louisiana. I design and sculpt metal clay pieces and jewelry. With a B.S. in Psychology and Alternate Teacher certification in secondary English, my career journey began in the Education field as a middle and high school English teacher and, later, Director of Education with a large private company. My artistic pursuits began as a hobby over fifteen years ago and is evolving into a lifelong dream.

When I was nine years old my father, my hero, suddenly passed away, leaving me to spend the remainder of my childhood as the middle of three children in a single parent home. Creativity sustained me through childhood. As an educator, I encouraged my students to be creative, but lost touch with my own creativity. I decided to teach myself jewelry-making (beading) as a way to reconnect with my creative side. During an internet inquiry, I stumbled across metal clay. Metal clay is recycled metal that has been ground up very finely and made into clay form. I design and sculpt metal clay pieces, then fire them in a kiln. During the firing process the metal particles sinter (melt back together) and return to its original pure metal state. I then use the metal pieces as components in my completed jewelry creations. This rejuvenation of a natural material is a theme that runs through my work and my life.

My artistic works are meant to be a psychologically driven visual discourse on perception, experience, and understanding of life. I use art as a way to understand the importance and power of experiences, desires, dreams, and fantasies. I do not seek to interpret the world as realistically as it is seen by the naked eye. Rather, I try to give birth to relation through metaphors, particularly nature-inspired. Topics that repeatedly show up in my work are evolution, rebirth, and flight...often represented by winged creatures. Through coloristic explorations and experimentation via metal clays, gemstones, gilder's pastes, and fire (torch painting), my work has one goal in mind: to make sense of life in ways that arouse the viewer to apply the depicted metaphors to their own life. The opposition of real and unreal images, collision of reality and fantasy, along with memory and hyper-reality are the main themes that define my voice as an artist.

Currently I am working on a commission from the Shreveport Regional Arts Council to be sold exclusively at Giftspace at Artspace in downtown Shreveport. My jewelry business, Wired & Sassy, participates regularly in city events and festivals. A selection of jewelry can be found at The Agora Borealis in Shreveport. When I am not creating jewelry, I can be found painting.

For more on metal clay, sculpture, and jewelry, visit www.wiredandsassy.com or www.facebook.com/wiredandsassy.

Be adorned. It's a gem of a journey!

*Featured in article in The Shreveport Times' large article about 3D technology. Article highlighted how 3D technology is used in the arts, May 2015

*Participated as art vendor at Texas Avenue Makers Fair in Spring 2013, Fall 2013 and Spring 2015

*Participant as art vendor in several monthly HOSTS Event since November 2013

*Pop Up Shop business owner in Shreveport's Downtown Red River District Holiday Shops, November - December, 2014

*Participated as art vendor in Highland Tour of Homes Art Markets in December 2013 and May 2014

*Participant in Artist Entrepreneurial Intensive Workshop at Shreveport Regional Arts Council March-April 2014; Art Exhibition July - August, 2014

*Featured artist in local newspaper's Artist Spotlight, The Shreveport Times, June 2014

*Pop Up Shop business owner in Shreveport's 1st ever business Pop Up event in the Downtown Red River District, May 2014. Wired & Sassy received much positive media attention throughout the very successful event.

http://www.wiredandsassy.com/

Northwestern State University Graduate School