About

Beneath the Bell Jar

Art is personal.

You cannot create it without infusing a bit of yourself into the paint. So, why do I paint bell jars? Why do I trap peonies, orchids, and butterflies beneath the glass?

One of my first memories as a child is of the hours I spent studying the cloche on my mother’s dresser. I remember being mesmerized by the dusty little world beneath that glass dome, an undead menagerie of reincarnated flowers and stiff butterflies. I was born with a deep curiosity for the macabre, I've come to discover that most artists are. In my little 1990’s suburban world of relentless normality, this one strange diversion captured my attention.

It was no wonder, then, that my favorite book soon became Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar'—a macabre masterpiece detailing the peril of being born a strange woman in the relentlessly normal world of 1950’s society.

In my series, 'Beneath the Bell Jar,' I draw on these enclosures to highlight the struggle of being caught in the bell jar. The bell jar can represent conformity and societal pressures, anything that saps the creative breath from your world. We all have our bell jar.

In every piece, there is a mallet of sorts, sometimes it is an antique hammer or glass rod. It is an invitation to you to break the glass.