Meet the David Lynch of sculpture: this American Artist creates disturbing enchantment by capturing beauty in fear. She is a poet, writing her stories through glass.

When did you start working on glass - and why?
I fell into using glass accidentally. I had been working with ceramics (self taught) for about four years, when suddenly it was as if ceramics lost all the magnetics for me. All my inspiration and energy around ceramics just ebbed away. I tried to jumpstart my creativity by taking a paper making class, an Indian cooking class and finally with zero expectations - a workshop on glass casting. I realized almost instantly that glass can do all the same things that clay can, but in addition, glass transmits light.

You often work on souls leaving their bodies - often babies and animals …
I have always been of the belief that we are much more than our physicality. Our form represents only a small portion of who we are. It has been my ongoing aspiration to express the inner meaning that lies beneath the surface - attempting to portray the "soul" has been one way I have chosen. After I had our first child, Sophie, I was so sleep deprived she slept in bed with me and I was nursing her. Sophie had been deceased at birth - she had no pulse for eighteen minutes upon birth, and although she was subsequently revived, I was so afraid she might die again in her sleep that I rarely slept at all. Something happened with my sleep patterns during this time where I found myself staying conscious and alert even as my body fell asleep. During the times when this happened, I found myself rising out of my body - sometimes flying around the house and going outside, sometimes encountering people I loved who had died, who would tell me things I needed to prepare for in my upcoming future. It was fascinating, and I loved those conscious, lucid out of body dream experiences. It felt natural to make pieces about the phenomena that was happening to me.

Do your dreams influence your work?
My dreams definitely define and influence my work! Some of my best pieces I have seen first in dreams. Sometimes I go through periods where I don't dream at all - and I panic that this source of rich material and inspiration are gone to me forever.

What do you think of Twin Peaks or David Lynch’s work - do you see parallels in your bodywork?
I never saw David Lynch's show, Twin Peaks. I didn't have television when I was growing up or even in most of my twenties, so I missed the show. But I was a huge fan of David Lynch's movies anyway. He had some really strange and interesting early movies, as well as the classics, Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, etc. I wrote him a fan letter at one point and I enclosed photos of my work, offering to make pieces for free for his movies if he was interested. But I never got a response.

Do your dreams influence your work?
My dreams definitely define and influence my work! Some of my best pieces I have seen first in dreams. Sometimes I go through periods where I don't dream at all - and I panic that this source of rich material and inspiration are gone to me forever.

What is your favorite piece you made so far - and why?
My favorite piece, ever? I guess probably my piece „While You Are Sleeping“ that is in the permanent collection of the Corning Glass Museum. It is a small piece, but it does capture that quality of leaving the body, that I mentioned. I also like my Mermaid piece, that shows a human soul inside of a fish. I wanted to suggest that animals are no less than we are, and have souls, too.

What inspires you the most at the moment?
The strangest things inspire me. John Waters once said in one of his autobiographies that beauty is anything that you want to look at for more than a few seconds. I saw a woman at the mall recently with one light blue eye and one dark brown eye, and I got so excited she seemed a bit panicked by my enthusiasm. I love albino animals: there is a white deer that every year manages to elude being shot by hunters. When I see her it’s like seeing an angel. I lose my mind all together and call out the window that I love her. It makes my children so angry at me when I do that. I have made something like eight pieces about that deer. I often am most inspired by nature – recently trees. I am working on a piece of a tree birthing a person. The idea is that we are constantly birthing and rebirthing new, improved versions of ourselves.

What scares you the most at the moment?
I have a lot of anxiety, generally. But I would have to say that I do worry about bad things happening to my children. They are almost grown and are starting to make decisions for themselves about their safety, etc. … And I have this growing awareness that as their childhoods are almost over, so is my role of keeping them protected and safe.

If you were an animal which one would you be and why?
It is so funny you ask me what kind of animal I would be. When I was a child and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered, a peacock. Because peacocks were the most beautiful animal I had ever seen, like something out of a fairy tale. I really thought if I tried hard enough, I could turn into a peacock. I guess if I could now choose which animal I would be, I would choose some sort of bird. Like a heron - they are so ancient looking, like pterodactyls and they are very patient when fishing for their food. We have a great blue heron that comes regularly to our pond and he stands still for hours before pouncing triumphantly. He never misses. And he soars above the landscape so serenely and smoothly without making a ripple in the air. Sometimes when things are bothering me, I imagine myself a heron, rising above my problems to a higher perspective.