Because the World is Round

Longmont Museum, January-May 2020

Each piece in this exhibition emerged from humble origins, taking shape from an eccentric collection of ordinary materials that, when combined, offered no hint of what they might become when made to live together. Though these building materials are highly considered, formally and conceptually, I choose the sometimes uncomfortable position of sustained suspense, until the work’s ultimate destiny becomes apparent. Hundreds of cowboy hats were assembled into an
enormous, spore-like sphere. Giant wall reliefs allude to cartographic places previously unknown, while light-eating black compositions constructed of crystalline dots of graphite, draw the eye as it travels from granular particle to outsized giant—and back again.

Dense, tactile assemblage and free-standing sculptures present themselves with minimal clues to their complex origins. Behind thousands of exposed rings and spheres is a visceral, physically demanding, and mysterious process. Works take shape from discarded, domestic objects as well as traditional art-making materials which I aggregate, cast, cut, and combine to create matter that is ultimately laid bare, exposing the “guts” of the substratum. The idea of a conceptual miner would not be too far afield.

Driven by curiosity and fueled by a strange affinity for demanding work, I manufacture handmade chunks of “material stock”, subjecting it to all manner of chemical microclimates and mechanical pressures through a variety of unconventional techniques. Into each piece, the layered steps of my process embed a historical record of intention, scrambled by unpredictable forces acting over time. Finished pieces of art remain patiently buried in this custom-built amalgam until I dive in with tools and an unquenchable thirst for discovering what’s inside. I cut, drill, grind, scrape, and otherwise manipulate the material until the object of my desire—the specifics of which, previously unknown to me, reveals itself. Paradoxically, these complicated steps generate singular objects which seem to have effortlessly built themselves or magically materialized, leaving the viewer free to discover the ways in which radical changes to material and presentation can reassign and revitalize meaning.

Throughout my work, the circle is both a conceptual building block and a formalist end in itself. The complex world of circles enfolds and suspends dualistic concepts, holding opposites in necessary traction. The comedic alchemy of exaggerated scale serves to simultaneously make work that juxtaposes light with darkness, inner space with outer space, humor with dead seriousness, weightlessness with gravity, holiness with profanity, and more. I intend to pull viewers into these universal tensions, to stimulate novel, transcendent responses to the existential questions behind humanity’s search for meaning. One circle at a time, I invite viewers to engage and explore our mysterious universe, forever expanding ever since it was just a little dot of a thing.