Q: When did your passion for art first begin?
A: I’ve always had an interest in art. My parents enrolled me in art classes at the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga when I was in elementary school and continued to show me that they valued art and creativity throughout my childhood. The Hunter has a great collection of contemporary sculpture that I was drawn to. I had a wonderful art teacher, Isabel McCall, in high school at Girls Preparatory School that supported my interest in sculpture and art, as well. After high school, I attended the University of Georgia for undergrad, but I wasn’t an art major at first. Second semester I found myself really missing the process of creating art, but the only way you could take art classes was to become an art major. I changed my major to art and signed up for their study abroad program in Italy. While in Italy, I was able to concentrate solely on art for the first time in my life and learned about stone carving and foundry. Upon returning to the states, I knew that I would keep the art major, specifically sculpture, at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.
Q: After graduating from UF with your master’s degree in interior design, what kept you in Gainesville?
A: When I graduated, my husband Tim still had another year left to finish his Ph.D., so I knew I had to stay in Gainesville. I earned a concentration in historic preservation along with my master’s, and I was hired by Southeastern Archaeological Research to be an architectural historian. I loved my time there evaluating historic structures for their potential eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places, and I learned a lot about cultural resource management at the state and national level. Yet, the longer time went on, the more I yearned for a time when I could concentrate solely on my art again. Once Tim began his career, I knew I had a chance to focus on my art again. Tim and my family were very supportive, urging me to make more art. When I was pregnant with my first child, I worked with a coach, Wade Arnold, who helped me learn how to balance my art pursuits with motherhood. I owe much of my early success to working with him. That transition to motherhood can be an overwhelming time, so I am thankful that he showed me how I could have the art career I wanted and be the kind of mother and wife I wanted to be at the same time.
Q: What do you feel makes your work unique and stand out?
A: While I spend a great deal of time looking at other people’s work, I don’t really compare my work to other artists’ work. I find that some people outside the art world are surprised that I am able to produce large works in metal, especially while my children are young, but I think as more and more women take an interest in metal, that is changing.
Q: What were your thoughts when approached with The Cade Museum project?
A: I was really excited to help support them. Since I am married to a research professor, I live in that intersection of science and art, and I find that it has made a profound impact on my work. I also think that having the Cade here in Gainesville will give my children incredible opportunities to learn about innovation. When they are old enough, I will be taking them to classes at the Cade the same way my parents took me to classes at the Hunter Museum. I believe that the museum will create a community of innovation and creativity here that will lead to significant discoveries and developments in science, engineering and art.
I also think that the museum has the potential to be the anchor for a more vibrant and successful downtown. Growing up in Chattanooga, I saw how the opening of the aquarium there was just the beginning of one of the most successful downtown revitalizations in this country. I believe that The Cade will launch that kind of success here in Gainesville. We have a great start with Innovation Gainesville and the great projects that the CRA is working on. I think Gainesville can become the next great revitalization story, and the opening of the Cade is our tipping point. I want to be a part of that. I want to do everything I can to make it happen.
Q: How does your family inspire your work?
A: As I mentioned before, Tim’s being a scientist has had a huge influence on my work. I love how everything he researches is so small that it is invisible to the naked eye. I have learned that if you are dealing exclusively with things you cannot see, you have to develop an understanding of what things look like and how they work within your mind, and then you have to develop ways to explain and show that to other people. When Tim is working that way, it’s not so different than how an artist creates a new sculpture first in their mind, then on paper, then in 3D. He has to come up with new ways of “seeing” what is really going on so that others can see it. Of course, it can be incredibly frustrating when instruments don’t work right or he reaches a conclusion he wasn’t expecting, but I have been through that with my own work, too, and admire his persistence to figure it out and to keep looking, keep asking those scientific questions. His patience and persistence are an inspiration to me in my own work.
Q: What project are you most proud of?
A: I don’t think I’m ready to answer that just yet.
Q: What projects are you currently working on?
A: I’m working with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Fight Injustice and Global Human Trafficking to create a sculpture that addresses the problem of human trafficking in this country and beyond. I have finalized the design, and I am moving into the production phase soon.
Q: What goals do you have with your career in the future?
A: I have had much success in exhibiting throughout the Southeast, and I hope to exhibit on the West Coast and overseas soon.
Compiled by Ashton Harrison
Photography by Cindy Taylor