My beaded works provide opportunities for stillness, contemplation and awe. Created to foster introspection, they are small shrines to viewers’ own guiding lights.

My pieces combine traditional Indigenous techniques for the creation of beaded appliqués, and a traditional Western format for presentation. Materials such as beads, stones, and mother-of-pearl individually feature various finishes that reflect and refract light as it hits the completed whole, in accordance with a space’s features and the viewer’s position. Finished works come alive in direct response to their surroundings.

My process as a visual artist explores and acknowledges both my multicultural roots and cosmopolitan outlook; it pays tribute to my friends, family, and ancestors. It explores the nature of truth; freedom of expression as a foundational principle; current cultural stalemates; political influences on artists’ creative processes; and the impact of grounded artistic and spiritual practices in an antagonistic, dis/connected world.

My beadwork owes much of its rigorous playfulness, appreciation for quality craftsmanship, and deliberate approach to formal elements to my longstanding practice as a jazz musician.