The wonder in the everyday

“I have flowers in my house, why don’t I look at them?”

— May Sarton

A child learning to work the buttons on their shirt or the laces on their shoes, a quiet glance exchanged between friends at a party, a potter working at their clay, the messiness of a home with toddlers, the quiet daily work of showing up again and again, for our loved ones, our communities and ourselves.

So often these ordinary moments get lost in the grand narratives of our lives, yet they are the places where much of life happens. I strive to make work that helps my viewers find new appreciation for these moments. I’m inspired by many thinkers: May Sarton, Angela Davis, Elizabeth Alexander, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rainer Maria Rilke, Mary Oliver, many of them poets of the everyday.

I hope the aggregate of my work moves hearts in ways similar to their poetry, and helps myself and others who encounter it to re-establish our appreciation for the wonder in the every day, the many small places in our lives that make all the difference. Or to distantly quote May Sarton, I hope it helps us stop and think “ I have flowers in my house, why don’t I look at them?”