Much of my work is about the conflict between outer appearance and internal landscape; about our protective shells that, if too well constructed, become prisons. The Birth Series is about breaking that shell. Although the phrase Avant Garde usually refers to a group of artists, its origin is military, and I use it here with that reference: the proud, aggressive posture in the face of fear, the broken protective layer for moving toward a threatening, unknown objective; acts essentially male, essentially societal, essentially sexual.