Climbers are sentimental about their gear and tend to hang on to equipment even when it has been retired from use. The purpose of a climbing rope is to protect the users from harm, or even death, under stressful conditions. One builds a relationship with their equipment. Your gear is like a friend that has traveled with you and kept you safe. This attachment makes it difficult for one to just discard a rope once it has surpassed the point of being safe for climbing.
My current body of work began out of the simple desire to create something from these rich materials. Here I employ retired climbing ropes to explore my personal curiosity and to express past experiences. Using macramé, installation, and climbing gear I am exploring my femininity and my masculinity parallel to the outdoors and indoors. The intent is to draw on memories and human instincts, cultivating a space between art, mindfulness, and risk. With these materials, I construct various forms and structures creating a space where femininity, ruggedness, memory, materiality, risk, and mindfulness coexist in what I refer to as rugged femininity. Using landscape as a springboard, these structures are purposefully abstracted in order to produce a space for individual conjecture, interpretation, and contemplation. Thereby, creating an experience where time slows down, or maybe even stops for a brief moment, in order to locate and preserve a place of wonder and sublimity.