Eclecticity: Opening Reception Fri. July 26, 6-9pm
My body of work is eclectic. Some of the pieces are abstract, some are figurative, and some are very decorative; but all have surface texture created by collaged papers and built-up paint.
FLUID THINGS: Opening Reception Fri. July 26, 6-9pm
My work is a way of finding out who I am. To quote Kurt Vonnegut; “I make art to experience becoming – to find out what’s inside me – to make my soul grow.” Each piece tells me more about myself. It’s a more honest statement about who I am and my relationship to the world than I can make in any other way.
I am a sculptor whose raw materials are scrap metal, wood, and other materials I find. I manipulate, add and subtract until the piece speaks to me, tells me it is finished and I see the “soul” of the work. I live and work in the country & have access to old tools and parts of farm equipment. These materials speak of death and renewal. By using old pieces of metals in my sculptures, they can add different textures and shine lights on different parts of the final piece. When I’m actually creating these pieces, I’ve found that it’s beneficial to have a good cutting tool to ensure you can cut up these pieces of metal perfectly. It was recommended to me that I looked into using the powermax 45 by Hypertherm to try and get my pieces cut as smoothly as possible. By getting the pieces accurate when cutting, it creates a better finish on the overall sculpture.
Being an artist for me is a process of lifelong learning, you are never done. Each piece is a perpetual renewal. It’s always for the first time.
QUERENCIA: Opening Reception Fri. July 26, 6-9pm
Querencia: Spanish, a metaphysical concept, a place where one draws strength and is restored. In bullfighting, it is the part of the arena the bull seeks and chooses to take his stand, from this position he finds strength and calm.
These photographs are for me, querencias. They are places of meditation, sanctums in whose forms I find a presence that restores and gives peace. I drive backroads, through countryside, towns, and cities, looking to find, see, and photograph those places that are imbued with presence. I make documentary photographs that are both concrete and abstract. In my photographs there is a dialogue between the natural color of the living landscape and the manmade color of structures as they have been modified by conditions and time. My photographs are an aesthetic and topographic archaeology of a site; they are simultaneously a celebration of light gracing form, and a way of seeing which reveals the extraordinary in the ordinary. Photographic accuracy of light and color renders the subtle place where the fortuitous occurs and the marvelous emerges. The photograph captures the chemistry of an instant that both defines, and is redefined by the printed image. A sense of place, an image, a print, a querencia.