About

Decay, transformation, and memory all play important roles in the making and consideration of my artwork. Thinking of my work as a natural system of relationships, specifically relationships of pervasiveness and strength, it makes sense to refer to each series of my work as an ecology. Art intended not only to reflect or evoke nature but to be a part of the natural world as an ecology. Art as ecology is meant to transform nature and then be transformed by nature as it decays and the process of memory begins exposing the interconnectedness of the ecosystems that operate around us and the complexities of memory within us.

Through the vast history of  existence, humans have lived a very brief time in a world of excess. We are conditioned to  instantaneous need and have difficulties grasping concepts beyond the immediate. Things at very large scales are incomprehensible, and things at very small scales unnoticed. We miss shifts in the climate and weather. We have difficulties imagining time far into the future or deep in the past. We forget our place in this vast system, this deep time. Art as ecology is intended to solicit attention to this history and to facilitate conversations about our place in it.

The Seasons for the Midwest ecology helps tell the passage of time through abstract representations of the seasons of a year: the first snowfall, the last mowed lawn, the blooming wisteria, the thundering storm. Instead of the mechanics of clocks and calendars recounting time, we are inspired to see the past and the future in the nature around us. 

Tools for Measuring Deep-Time ecology explores the process and purpose of decay. The first parts to disappear, or decay, are the patterns, then the paper components representing language, followed by the structural support system, and, finally, the crashing of the ceramic elements to the ground allowing them to return to soil one day.

Currently, I am interested in capturing clouds and tangling tableaus to re-vision old (stale) masterwork paintings.