My
work derives from a lifetime of fragmented memories, landscapes, and objects. I
often reflect upon my childhood perception of landscape, with the ground
serving as the horizon line in the distance. This early observation remains a
constant visual metaphor in my mind and guides my work. My visual tools include
shape, form, color, mark, and texture. I process and reference objects,
memories, and landscapes. I seek to provide a break from the distractions of
daily life and the waist-deep technologically driven culture that surrounds us.
To be clear, I am neither a snob nor a Luddite. I both own and watch my T.V.
and I enjoy being aware of current news events. I also appreciate not having to
talk on a landline anymore. Immediacy makes the world go ‘round, but there is
something to be valued in acknowledging what it is to be truly present.
I
have experienced many types of landscape and architecture in my travels, but I
am most interested in the regions of the United States’ often referred to as
“flyover country.” As I create and arrange objects within a conceptual
framework or an environment, I cannot help but reflect upon the proverbial
Midwestern landscape of flat cornfields that is characteristic of my small
Indiana hometown. The barns, trees, telephone poles, radio towers, and erected
water tanks in these landscapes become the focus as they stick out like sore
thumbs in an otherwise flat space.
Ultimately,
I intend to create compositions that embody a tension between ambiguity and
object-ness. As I obsessively arrange, rearrange, and
develop environments, my viewer is invited to contemplate my objects and
spaces. No maps are readily available, nor are there “apps” available to
determine one’s location or interpret my rebus-like constructions. Hopefully
what is relayed and gleaned through my objects and installations is a love for
materials, process and a joy in making.
