Statement

New works in ink

Both the mysterious deep flow of organic life and the entropy of manmade things inspire in me something between inquisitiveness and a sense of wonder. This inspiration comes into focus while I’m making this new work. Among my earliest memories are intense events in nature, along with direct involvement in building processes and fascination with mechanical objects. The work here in ink seems to show me how these apparent opposites (natural flow and manmade things) not only can co-exist quite happily but, in fact, lead each other into unknown dimensions.

I’ve collected rusty objects for over 15 years, fascinated by their crusty beauty that records the process of entropy and time on these once shiny and strong things; it seems that the exposure of metal to the raw elements of earth, wind, and water—their experience of being in the world—draws out a singular character far beyond their functional design. Now these objects bring their experience to a new surface in my works in ink (on either paper or canvas in the present series). Having brought them home with me because of some spark of interest in their form or surface, I now take them in hand, and lay them down on a blank surface, moving them into original configurations that call me to a further action. The objects hold the ground, cast shadows, or, in a shadowy way, suggest unknown forms, as I participate in the natural process of moving them while their presence moves me. Rusty springs, chains, circular metal bands, mattress springs—they speak with configurative force that I move with, as they become the bones of an emerging form in space.

These elements—messy, dirty, discarded, thoroughly of this earth to which they are visibly, rustily returning—become the structure through which I spray ink and watch the initial image emerge, somewhat as a photo develops in the darkroom, or perhaps a photogram comes out gradually in light over time. There’s an alchemy—of light, of motion, and of material brought out beyond its origin—that show something new, almost a singular life form.

For me drawing/painting, as well as other art forms I practice (oil painting, metal sculpture, photography, video), is the site of something unknown. While making art, I’m able to engage this unknown, let it pass through me, speak to me, and move me to bring out the finished work. In these current works, fluid ink does what it does on the surface, then I remove the rusty objects. Now the piece really speaks to me, as I work into it by painting or drawing while the ink is moving and flowing. Emerging intent meets apparent chaos to bring out something new, perhaps a kind of order ready to be seen.

As one critic and artist has written: “The works have a 3-D sculptural feel within a 2-D medium, where the intervention of actual objects leave their trace and invite the eye to explore imaginable depths. This allows an intimate engagement with both what hasn’t quite appeared there (absent rusty metal things) and intricate but half-open configurations (where ink hits paper). And it teaches each viewing to be a first viewing.”

Bio

Born Flint, Michigan, 1964. Currently lives and works in Kingston, New York.

Exhibitions and collections

2007

“Cherry” video for “Erotica” show, Tivoli New York

“Black and White” show, Kleinart Gallery, Woodstock, New York (video collaboration with George Quasha)

2004

Oil painting, “Pose”, collection of Dr. Peter Meacher and advertising executive Kenneth Robinson, New York, New York

2001-03

Open studios, painting and drawing exhibit, Shirt Factory, Kingston, New York

2000

Oil paintng, “The Center”, private collection of Sharon Chauss, Minneapolis, MN

1998

Oil paintng, “Move”, private collection of Sharon Chauss, Minneapolis, MN

1997

Multi-media exhibit, Stone Ridge Center for the Arts, Stone Ridge, NY

1995

Drawing exhibition, “Body Prints”, Sybarite, New York City

1989

Painting, “Winged”, donated to Kalamazoo Arts Organization, fundraiser

1988

Drawing exhibition, “Out of the Past”, Club Cafe Boston, MA

Education

BFA Art, Magna Cum Laude, Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI 1986

Professional experience

1995–2008

Partner and founder of Oxygen Design, Kingston, NY Full service design company providing multi-media, and print design

2005-2008

Video editing and media support for George Quasha

1993-1995

Art director, Scholastic Inc. New York City

1991-1993

Art director, Singer Design, New York City

1989-1991

Designer, Edlund Mulcrone Inc., Boston, MA

1985-1988

Designer, James River Corporation, Kalamazoo, MI

Press

Coming soon