This series started with a $3.99 thrift store find of a small Budai figurine, the rotund, laughing monk of Chinese Buddhist tradition, which had apparently once served as a cocktail vessel or incense holder. Something about the figure stuck with me, and I began experimenting with ways to trap and transform it in plastic. Working through vacuum forming, I developed a process of slowly submerging the statue, pulling it up and down through the softened material until I had the shape I wanted, then holding it in place as it hardened. The result was a series of figures caught mid-emergence, each one a slightly different stage of the same slow disappearance.

The real surprise came when I noticed the forms looked uncannily like gummi bears — and I thought, if I could light these up, they'd be glowing gummi bears. I placed LEDs inside and the plastic turned out to be far more translucent than I expected, the light diffusing through the material and pooling at the base, casting soft halos on the wall behind. What started as a meditation on transformation ended up somewhere stranger and more fun.

Gummi Bear Series, 2022, vacuum-formed plastic, LED lights.