A friend, Connie O'Meara, is a great lover of Mexican art and crafts. One day at her home I noticed a small, metal-hinged box with a glass front. Inside were tiny silver cutouts-an angel, a heart, a hand--and I thought rather idly "that's what I want to do." This exhibition represents my interpretation of that form, a series of shadow boxes which maintain some metaphysical or spiritual core. Each piece is made from gouache, paper, and wood, some with gold or copper leaf; the work incorporates personal narratives, fragments of dreams, and reinterpretations of poems I've written (as in "Helping Hannah Sleep"). I have worked for a number of years making artist's books-a form that exploits the 3-dimensional capabilities of paper. This work feels like an organic extension of that genre.

As a visual artist I have recognized in myself two seemingly apposing forces: on one hand I strive to create work I consider beautiful--work that would have pleased the 5-year-old child I once was; and on the other is the critical and ironic consciousness of the adult. I use text with image to maintain and integrate the tensions between these points of view, combining carefully rendered images with the ongoing, consuming narrative of the adult.