For my first ever installation, I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone. I still love and want to make utilitarian pieces, but there is a part of me that needs to communicate the challenges from working in the resteraunt environment and the transition I have gone through to get to this point. By breaking both readymade and handmade plates, I am able to take the randomness of the pieces and reconfigure them into a different kind of plate. These pieces now show scars, cracks, holes, and a more tongue and cheek approach to how the restaurant industry has personally shaped me. The table creates the base which is filled with chaos, trinkets, and memories yet it is the foundation of what makes the restaurant industry function. The industry that not only has shaped me but my family included. The tabletop being encased in resin allows the preservation of this transition period and the opportunity for the viewer to see the layers of all of the objects. 

I do not want to get stuck in the transition phase and this recognition is displayed at the final table. The manipulation of the rim and the streaks through the plate creates the opposite effect of the white set of plates in the gallery. I purposefully use touch to show the fallibility of humans and how the imperfections make relationships perfect. I want the viewer to recognize the touch and imperfections from my functional work as what makes them perfect. The functional work is a reflection of the new found confidence and the calmness that is found after the transition phase. For me, I have found peace from the chaos of the transition, which has allowed me to gain a better connection with myself and my place within the community. I hope this body of work offers the viewer an opportunity to perhaps feel the simplicity of the ready-made, the chaos of the broken coming together, and confidence and completeness of the work that contains my human touch.