ARTIST STATEMENT

I make in response to the American culture I am engulfed in. I don't necessarily love it or hate it, its contradictions stimulate me. The focus of my work has been the narratives of progress and consumption and how they are ritualized. By creating shrine-like forms and compositions and using residual products of the society I am building the idols for the church of the new American religion, consumption.

The American Narrative is one of progress, things are getting better, we are so advanced. But we're still the same, aren't we? Things change, civil rights, world wars, union struggles, trusts are busted but it's still the same story. My work explores what we will look like to them through the creation of objects that represent our technology, culture, and history through a more primitive or crude aesthetic. In one hundred years, we will be the primitive ones; the people of the future will look at us and say "how did they live like that". We don't
know how they will live, but it will be better, we know there will be progress.

The other Big Story is Consumption, I work to make money to buy stuff. I need stuff, every-where I go someone tells me I need their something. By creating idols for the worship of stuff I attempt to create a world where the worship of consumption is even more blatant, even more glorified. While consumption in excess disturbs me, it also amuses me and I partake, I make a trip to 7-11 each day for coffee communion. My art and my self are a part of the world of consumption, I try to battle it but also embrace it.

Materials play a large part in my creative process, while I love to work glass and know how to sculpt it I don't always need to, in fact most of my work demands the found object. By using found objects I incorporate the residues of consumption into my shrines to the rituals. A culture is, at least partially, defined by its objects. My work needs the cheap mass produced objects to fully embrace the ritual consumption I seek to glorify. This can seem ridiculous, and I keep a sense of humor in my work, often through choices of found objects. Additionally, I find the challenge of acquiring and assembling the needed elements into a work to be just as, and sometimes more, challenging as creating those elements myself. Ultimately conveying my experiences in this cult of stuff will happen with any material. The materials may seem to be garbage but the garbage can be more powerful, I attempt to recognize when glass is necessary and when found objects are necessary or find whatever means will achieve the expressive ends.