I want to start with a list of things that I like. I like people who tell you details of their life in an e-mail that is purely business. I am working on a project with a woman who does this. She tells me about her husband who is looking for a job when e-mailing me about a book that we are ordering. Just the other day I was picking something up for my husband's boss and I met a guy who gave me a short dissertation on a fungus that ruins cocoa crops and could create a chocolate shortage. He told me about the effect that this would have on some of the women in his life. He cited his mother as one to worry about in the event of this disaster. He went on to tell some chocolate facts. Chocolate is the best sweet to eat if you cannot brush your teeth afterwards because it repels the bacteria that causes tooth decay.
I like uncovering small insignificant mysteries about the people I know through observation. For example, I want to figure out if a friend is left handed or has parents who are European without being told. I want to know that a friend doesn't like tuna fish before it comes up in conversation. I like listening to long, drawn-out stories in the songs on the country music station. I like the way fiction unfolds around fact in novels. I like reading everything that one author writes to slowly unearth and dig out the recurring theme that might be based on something that really happened to the author. I like old houses that tell the story of the years of their use. I like things that are covered over to make a new start. I like the potential of a mystery. I like new starts. I like New Years resolutions. I like addictions and I like giving up addictions. I like the way that years of use creates history in an object. I like how everyday has a potential to be a question asked and answered. I like riding the bus.
It is my intention to awaken a curiosity in the viewer, by pushing the line between fact and fiction while still being truthful. I am interested in a narrative that is created and recreated in the mind of the audience, a question that leads to many different answers. When I was a kid I read the 'Make Your Own Adventure' books. In these books you would make a choice concerning the narrative, and depending upon your choice you would turn to a different page to read a different conclusion. In my work the audience has the opportunity to complete the narrative. I make work about history, real and imagined. I make work about the secret dreams that objects soak up after years of proximity to hopes.