My art making is an extensive process that is saturated in time and ritual. While it is easy to assume that my work is about oysters, it is actually about ideas of place and nature, specifically St. Mary's. My connection to the landscape has led me to consider how I develop a personal relationship with nature—moments of time and place—through collection. Collecting is a habit I find to be a natural human reaction. We as humans have an internal ache to understand objects and connect to the tangible.

In many ways I believe that is a foundation for making art; to make emotions, relationships, thoughts and concepts concrete. That sense of concreteness is important in my own work; it allows me to make apparent how I am connecting to the world and understanding my own relationship with St. Mary's. People and places are both impressionable; not only have I left indentations upon the shoreline of the river here, but the shoreline has indented upon me. To remember this importance, I collect oyster shells. At other important places I have visited in my lifetime, I have also collected—rocks, coral, shells, leaves—all have found their way from their natural, original location and accumulated in my hands, pockets, and shelves.