Much of the work here is a meditation on the genres of painting and sculpture. In each case, the same question is posed: how can a genre--or an example of it--be represented, so that the resulting object both partakes of and resists that genre's rules and identity?
My solution has been to alter some salient feature of each category: for example, excluding or subordinating paint in the "paintings", reducing the scale of the "sculptures" to render them model-sized. The ensuing items are at once allied with and at a remove from their sources; this encourages engagement with and detached examination of the specific works and the broad genres from which they take their cues.
Another common thread among the works is materials. Almost without exception, constituent materials and forms are found--at flea markets and thrift stores, on the street and in clearance bins. Here, formal invention consists in recognition, salvage, and combination, with only rare admixture of traditional artist's materials or the appearance of the artist's "hand". This process reinforces each work's dual status as art object and cultural artifact.
My work, as evidenced visually by stripped-down form and simple, discrete areas of color, is concerned with essences: awareness of the qualities or combination thereof that are necessary to a thing, versus those that may be subtracted without sacrificing identity. By establishing and manipulating these basic features, each move--and how it affects meaning--becomes amplified. In this manner, I have endeavored to open a space within traditions that are dear to me, and continue to find something fresh and vital at their core.
