Artist Statement
I use allegories to question the human nature of attraction as a vehicle for social critique. How can we bolster our ability to withstand increasing levels of moral bankruptcy in the face of the sometimes overwhelming tragedy of existence? Must we endure the abject in order to appreciate the sublime? What might result from a world devoid of despair?
I use faux materials for their propensity to confound our definition of authenticity and value. By embracing synthetics - the faux version of real fur, for example - our natural preference for the genuine article can be outwitted. This shift in perception allows for an inversion of value systems - the abject can become seductive - the fake can become real. Disparate alliances between quality and kitsch, necessity and excess, safety and peril, are exploited in my work as catalysts for the scrutiny of desire. I'm assimilating the violence of the world into more palatable surrogates, creating my own idealized world where bad things happen, but the blood is never real, and everything comes out okay in the end - sort of. In this pseudo-safe world, idealized inhabitants interact with each other to create a magical place, where the ugly appropriate the beautiful, the phony co-opt the genuine, and where kitsch masquerades as king.
I choose particular animals as metaphors for the consequences of human aggrandizement. Deer are targets for our aggression, hunted for sport, or inevitable victims of automobile accidents - a consequence of nature colliding with the unnatural speed of of our mechanized lives. Elusive and vulnerable, I use them to represent my idealistic longing for a lost innocence that can never be regained - they are the fragile guardians of an extinct moral paradise. If my deer act as the victim, then my elephants play the Everyman, bearing the weight of the human condition, cursed and feeble, armless and stunted. These fantastical animals absorb our dark side, morphing into hybrids in response to the damage we cause from our flawed nature, their eyes forever blinded by the worthless faux artifacts of human desire.
The reference to painting in my wall pieces acts, albeit facetiously, as an access point for historically accepted conventions of artistic presentation, and is the grounding factor in an otherwise metaphysical wonderland of chicanery. This link acts in my world in the same way Alice's mirror acts in hers - as the gateway between reality and fantasy. Supplementally, by making paintings that invite touch, I am attempting to close the hierarchical distance between art and audience. From the comforting sensuality of faux fur to the highly charged eroticism of taut vinyl, I am aggravating a sense of tension and frustration through the repression of desire - a droll gambit to seduce the viewer into a modicum of self-awareness.
I exploit faux materials and invent fake worlds in a quixotic attempt to neutralize the consequences of violence, transforming perversions and deformations into allegories of regenerative power. If my mythical animal hybrids can reinvent themselves to counter the effects of of our moral inadequacies, then there is a chance that we may carry within ourselves the power to harness our violent nature and transform into better versions of ourselves.
I use faux materials for their propensity to confound our definition of authenticity and value. By embracing synthetics - the faux version of real fur, for example - our natural preference for the genuine article can be outwitted. This shift in perception allows for an inversion of value systems - the abject can become seductive - the fake can become real. Disparate alliances between quality and kitsch, necessity and excess, safety and peril, are exploited in my work as catalysts for the scrutiny of desire. I'm assimilating the violence of the world into more palatable surrogates, creating my own idealized world where bad things happen, but the blood is never real, and everything comes out okay in the end - sort of. In this pseudo-safe world, idealized inhabitants interact with each other to create a magical place, where the ugly appropriate the beautiful, the phony co-opt the genuine, and where kitsch masquerades as king.
I choose particular animals as metaphors for the consequences of human aggrandizement. Deer are targets for our aggression, hunted for sport, or inevitable victims of automobile accidents - a consequence of nature colliding with the unnatural speed of of our mechanized lives. Elusive and vulnerable, I use them to represent my idealistic longing for a lost innocence that can never be regained - they are the fragile guardians of an extinct moral paradise. If my deer act as the victim, then my elephants play the Everyman, bearing the weight of the human condition, cursed and feeble, armless and stunted. These fantastical animals absorb our dark side, morphing into hybrids in response to the damage we cause from our flawed nature, their eyes forever blinded by the worthless faux artifacts of human desire.
The reference to painting in my wall pieces acts, albeit facetiously, as an access point for historically accepted conventions of artistic presentation, and is the grounding factor in an otherwise metaphysical wonderland of chicanery. This link acts in my world in the same way Alice's mirror acts in hers - as the gateway between reality and fantasy. Supplementally, by making paintings that invite touch, I am attempting to close the hierarchical distance between art and audience. From the comforting sensuality of faux fur to the highly charged eroticism of taut vinyl, I am aggravating a sense of tension and frustration through the repression of desire - a droll gambit to seduce the viewer into a modicum of self-awareness.
I exploit faux materials and invent fake worlds in a quixotic attempt to neutralize the consequences of violence, transforming perversions and deformations into allegories of regenerative power. If my mythical animal hybrids can reinvent themselves to counter the effects of of our moral inadequacies, then there is a chance that we may carry within ourselves the power to harness our violent nature and transform into better versions of ourselves.