Similar to the concept of elevating everyday life through genre paintings, like the Realism painter Gustave Courbet, I aim to elevate objects and materials that are no longer considered useful, or no longer seem to have a purpose. Courbet painted scenes of the lower class and laborers, which were not typically revered subjects in the 19th century art world; and I paint, weave, glue, and nail together objects and materials that are considered waste in our mass producing, mass consuming society.
Mass-production creates mass waste, which takes over and destroys many natural environments. Instead of products becoming waste I want waste to create products, but not just any products, I want waste to produce art. What was once refuse becomes something valuable again. These artworks are intended to reflect nature in that they are unique; they take on a more organic form, usually a web-like shape; and can appear either welcoming or threatening depending on the viewer and the material used. The result should take these materials and objects far from the world of technology and mass-production, the world from which the waste was discarded.
My sculptures appear as if they are inching down the wall towards the viewer; suggesting movement or growth invisible to the human eye similar to the movement of hair, trees, fingernails, or feathers. A material used most often in my work is string or any related form of it. String in my sculptures is like a line in a drawing, however string can literally and visually hold things together, while a line can only create the illusion of holding different shapes and materials together. String unifies objects that wouldn’t necessarily coexist in their original function or setting like a broken hubcap and an old t-shirt. One material may act as a skeleton while another acts as skin, like a telephone wire covered in shreds of a recycled painting, creating arms that stretch and feel their way down to the floor. A fabric-square and t-shirt web clutches two wooden fence planks. One clings to the wall and the other steps out onto the floor.
I reuse the factory produced to form the manmade, to reflect the natural world. These creations may be intimidating to some viewers but my aim is to create an object to be respected. The viewer and sculpture must agree to coexist in the same way man and nature must agree to do so.
