Snow Globe Reliquaries

Snow Globe Reliquary #1

Snow Globe Reliquary #2

Snow Globe Reliquary #2 - Open

Snow Globe Reliquary #3

Snow Globe Reliquary #3 - Open

These works came together from a series of installations of my studio and found objects from my studio...How could I contain a large studio installation and place it in a reliquary format? I also explored the idea of these items floating in space, like a snow globe...shake them up and the world would change...I have always been facinated by the context, however, I always felt they were too saccrin to be considered legitimate...so these are the darker side of happy snow globe forms...the contain skulls, animal bones and dirty, discarded objects...If these were to commemorate a vacation, this may not be where most would like to go...They are gritty and real, a place before the vacation...

They are small scale, ranging in size from 3 x 4 inches to 6 x 4 inches, there are eight in the series and the globe forms can turn by the handle on the bottom of the reliquary...

Automatic Pastel Drawings

These are a series of 30 or so automatic drawings...they "happen" through a process of laying down values and marks without conscious thought...these are blended and erased until forms appear...the foreground elements are filled in and related to adjacent images and then re-referenced back to the whole picture plane...a back-and-forth process continues using color, shape, scale, and mark making...until a completed work is present

Hurricane Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne #1

Hurricane Jeanne #1 - Open

Hurricane Jeanne #2

Hurricane Jeanne #2 - Open

Hurricane Jeanne #7

Hurricane Jeanne #7 - Open

The process can start many different ways, via conceptual inklings, formal placement concerns or evolving out of a love with materials...I tend to begin and push based on the idea, the thoughts persistently driving in my brain...the image that will not go away, that is so persistent it has to be revealed and realized...the context can be in may forms, often it is a container...a three-dimensional object that can be manipulated and enjoyed through touch...this too is conceptual in nature...the forms remove themselves from the traditional separation of "Artist," with a capital "A" and "Viewer," with a capital "V."

Alluding to the Arts & Craft movement, but with a darker side...these explorations grow out of historical contexts and knowledge beyond the craft...but are essential, for me, in the making of the object....exploring my obsessions...this particular piece came about due to my anxiety regarding Hurricanes and my new found home, right in the path of several...being from Chicago, I was only aware in a peripheral way...the thoughts and obsession to control the situation, being out of control, brought the storm inside the house, inside to reek havoc and stress...contained and unable to escape...we couldn't avoid the outside, nor the inside...trapped like anxious rats...I so wanted to the doors to fly open and allow us to escape and in the same breath, it was my worse fear...interior and exterior become one...

24 Icons

24 Icon

24 Icon - close up

24 Icons is a made up of 24 seperate panels, each represent a different iconographic presence...they are mask like forms, unable to show there true self, but are only comfortable behind an exaggerated persona...they have been configured both vertical and horizontal...In an exhibition at ISM Gallery, they occupied a whole wall as part of an installation...

East/West Series

East/West #7

East/West #6

East/West #6 - close up

East/West #9

After 9/11, I was let go from my job working at a telecommunication company...it was a good time to re-connect with my creative side, but it was also a time of great stress, without a job and a way to take care of my family...the image of floating heads kept appearing and I knew I had to follow the vision...these heads represent the everyman...the idea that anyone can be a hero, like so many that lost their lives in the terrorist attacks...borne out of this concept, combined with my interest and work in Eastern, atmospheric paintings, I combined the worlds of East and West...


I was asked several times why the faces seem so sad and so disconnected...I struggled with this thought, why aren't they more heroic looking? It wasn't until I was on a business trip in Switzerland, sitting on the train going back to Zurich that I realized why they have the expression...almost everyone on the train had their look, they were tired and worn down from their day...they were lost in thought and hoping to recharge...these faces are the faces of every hard working human being...floating in a sea of gold and waiting to wake up from their day (evening) dream...