Functional Art
Figurative Art
Collaborative Work
Artist Statement
“I strive to connect viewer with subject through associative properties of nostalgic objects. I believe truly well conceived art can offer awareness by interacting with us on a physical level.”
A densely populated urban environment makes me feel at once disconnected from the simple natural world while being totally inundated by the dealings of the society in which I live. A big city can seem like a non-stop extravaganza of sound & movement, especially after a childhood spent in a very rural setting. A big city is a place where personal space is gold & we’re all itching to have it. Living in such a place has taught me that as a rule I must have a well organized existence. With that in mind I seek out sensible objects with a duality of purpose. By Integrating beautiful forms into functional objects we are given the opportunity to combine artistic meaning with everyday triviality.
Another rule of the urban environment; While it is true that there is safety in numbers, there is danger too. Dangers to our health & emotional well being in the form of the inescapable germs, dust, & noise. To shut out or replace this sound, protect our skin, filter & scent our air, screen our visual communications, we’ve come up with an exciting array of products and devices. The objects found in my current series address these devices, symbols, & cultural artifacts.
This series includes “Safe Suit”, a wearable commentary on living in the city. This suit is made up of more than 300 latex rubber gloves. This suit is a sterile white. It is a full body suit that keeps you safe in a world so full of risk. “Don’t leave home with out your own personal Safe Suit”. Continuing that thought, “Sign of the Times” is a modifiable curtain that blocks (if you so choose) the visual onslaught of sadness & fear that plague our society. A sort of Pandora’s box composed of 600 rubber gloves sewn tightly together into two sheets connected by a large zipper: safely zipped, the wall is a sheet of cheerless black latex rubber gloves, unzipped the wall reveals all kinds of threatening subject matter. Primarily comprised of newspaper articles & ads from 2010 San Francisco publications, the wall speaks of violence, sex, & sickness. To some people these articles are pure evil, to others, simply life to be indulged. “Safe Suit”& “Sign of the Times” both strive to entice viewers to participate with hands on physicality.
The rest of the series comes out of this same wish to enlist the viewer as a vital participant. The subject matter addressed here has much to do with my own notions of function & form & how it can be applied to my living environment. The materials & my process came out of my study of fashion, industrial design, & Fine Art. I wanted to create contemporary works tailored specifically to my urban living space. With each of these works I sought out objects with widely held associative properties & strove to couple them with other materials that together became something new, stylish & once again useful.