To me there are few things more captivatingly beautiful than the natural world, yet there is something in nature’s uniquely overwhelming beauty and its power to deeply move us that lies just beyond comprehension. Its mysterious processes and creatures inspire wonder and feed our imaginations, and I believe that my own personal attraction to nature is part of a larger human fascination with the natural world. The seemingly endless myths, folklore, and symbolism ascribed to animals throughout history demonstrate both our desire to understand or find meaning in nature, and the powerful emotional responses we often feel toward other living things. That such a common, humble bird as a sparrow can hold so many and such varied meanings is to me a beautiful example of just this. Sparrows might be messengers or soul catchers, symbols of love and freedom, or harbingers of both good and bad luck.

In this work I hope to capture a sense of stilled motion—of birds caught in mid-flight. It is an ephemeral and somewhat fragile event, like so many of nature’s most beautiful moments. I hope that this work provokes curiosity and invites open-ended narrative interpretations while still acknowledging its own inherent materiality; these “sparrows,” though posed as animate beings, are undeniably ceramic objects hung from strings before pieces of paper pinned to a wall. More than anything else however, this project is an expression of my endless appreciation for the joy and wonder that nature’s strange, inexplicable beauty inspires in me.