“I use the sculptural vessel as an overture to expressions of time, memory, and place, creating intimate objects based on my negotiations through life. With the pace of life accelerating, we forget to take time to examine and be aware of our surroundings. My work focuses on the still moments, and exaggerates the overlooked details of a busy existence. It also reflects my interest in the impulse to collect mementos referencing a place visited. Whether a beach rock or a spoon, a souvenir captures a personal story and establishes a connection with the possessor. Using the vehicle of the keepsake or souvenir to explore documentation of personal experience, I seek to define a memory, and be aware of the equivocal landscape surrounding me.

Forms saturated with texture and contours draw my interest. I work reductively, carving surfaces to unearth the final details. The inspiration for the carved decoration comes from lines, volumes and monumental presences of geological and anatomical structures. A weeping Calla Lily outside my studio door, a decomposing whale swept from the sea, or the eroding granite needles from my home in the Black Hills — these scenes are metaphors for the experiences and memories dulled by the passage of time. Capturing the details of life, and passing on to the viewer a few brief moments, my work leaves a visual record of the forgotten and discarded.

I work in series; this show was a culmination of an idea, pertaining to what memories we carry with us, and what physical evidence we leave behind when we go. It started with a visit with my grandparents in South Dakota. My Grams drove us around to see all the homesteads near where she was born, to the slue they liked to swim in, and where they were married — all within a 20-mile radius. Most of the physical evidence of human life in these places is now just broken-down windbreaks.

I am interested in the objects that we care for then leave behind. I consider everything I do to be a beginning. I am sure this idea will evolve and mature into something more. This is just one part." — S. L.