STATEMENT
My affinity for animals comes from my childhood joys and struggles in raising animals.
As a kid I had all kinds of pets, including horses, chickens, at least four cats at any given time, and a turtle or two. Animals always embodied a strange duality; they are both companion and main course. On one hand, my father would go hunting for game, but my mother's chickens were friends of the family. Its not always easy to have pets as humans are known to develop deep emotional attachments. I have a tremendous respect for the strength and intelligence of animals, but always felt a little disconnect. I never understood my mother's obsession with caring for large animals. We always had horses when I was a kid, but now she's got a Great Dane. Ponies are not every little girl's dream; maybe my struggles come from mucking horse stalls every weekend.

Animals fill both the role of sidekick and that of subordinate. Pets can bring both comfort and heartbreak; building fulfilling relationships with animals also brings pain and responsibility. I feel there is true educational value in caring for a living creature and experiencing a reverence for life with its passing. Though so very personal, I've developed a removed and somewhat intellectualized view of pets; I'm particularly interested in how animals can be used as scales to weigh our own emotions. Our critter counterparts can stand as symbols for conversation about our own social practices. Evolution has allowed us larger brains, reasoning skills, and social hierarchies that distinguish us from other species. Now that we have developed a consciousness based on human identity, how have our ideas circulating animals changed? Domestication has allowed so many species to become integrated, contributing members of human society. Yet despite our opposable thumbs and imposable ideas, so much remains unchanged. I am so fascinated by the "human animal" and aim to imagine how the human experience continues to be informed by animals. We have lost a connection to animals as food source, thanks to the ever-developing Industrial food market. I believe the drive-thru severed our animal connection to meat; by putting an animal on a pedestal, I am attempting to re-evaluate the hierarchy of the food chain.

I would like to explore how humans project their own feelings onto animals - I use animal forms as symbols to express emotion and modes of human behavior; farm animals in particular because they are most familiar and easily recognizable. I love that anecdotes, popular sayings, quips and witty phrases have developed from our relationship with farm animals - "let sleeping dogs lie, "don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched" - valuable lessons have been learned. Standards and qualifiers have been created - "Dumb as a mule," "Strong as an ox" - I am fascinated at how different stigmas have been abstractly associated with animals. They are a mirror for viewing the human experience. I would like to evoke dialogue about vulnerability, consumption, and abuse. Animals feel anger, anxiety, frustration, loneliness and pain. Most are, like humans, highly affectionate and sometimes territorial. They develop attachments, and those with long lifespans can develop intimate and complex relationships with humans. My art aims to examine how humans have been informed by our changing relationship with the animal kingdom.
 

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BIOGRAPHY
I was born and raised in Hayward, California where my parents own a little over an acre which I fantasize to be our urban farm. This was a unique setting to grow up with both the influence of a populated, industrial city alongside the chores and manual labor which comes from raising animals and working the land. I value my connection to living things and the soil which feeds me. I currently live and work in Oakland, California.

RESUME

EDUCATION
California College of the Arts, BFA Ceramics 2008

EXHIBITIONS
2008
Oakland Souvenir Show, Manifesto Bike Shop, Oakland, CA
Strange Poultry, mg gallery, Oakland, CA
Baccalaureate Exhibition, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Baccalaureate Exhibition, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
CCACeramics, Ceramics Guild Show, CCACA, Davis, CA
Stray Flock, Thesis Exhibition, South Gallery, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
Oakland Pinching Society, Icebox, California College of the Arts, Oakland CA

2007
Single Serving; Functional Work from Oakland, CCA Bruce Galleries, San Francisco CA
All Artists Collective, South Gallery, California College of the Arts, Oakland CA
Ceramics Department Guild Show, Isabelle Percy West Gallery, Oakland CA
Bringing Sexy Back, Trax Gallery, Berkeley, CA
Best of Junior Review, California College of the Arts, Oliver Art Center, Oakland, CA
One-Ton Show, CCACA, Davis, CA

2006
CCA Ceramics Guild Show, CCACA, Davis, CA

RELATED EXPERIENCE
UC Berkeley, ASUC Art Studio Ceramics Faculty, January 2009-Present
UC Berkeley, ASUC Art Studio Ceramics Studio Technician, August 2008-Present
CCA, Oakland, CA, Pre-College Assistant Coordinator, Summer 2007 & 2008
Plastic Antinomy Magazine, Contributing Writer, Fall 2008
CCA, Oakland, CA, Ceramics Guild President, 2007-2008
TRAX Gallery, Berkeley CA, Gallery Assistant, May 2007
Chabot Elementary, Berkeley, CA, Resident Artist Assistant, January 2006-May 2006

AWARDS
2007 Best of Junior Review, California College of the Arts
2004-2008 Merit Scholarship, California College of the Arts

CONTACT
E-mail Audrey

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