For real life

For Real Life contains paintings, drawings and sculptures that depict personal and mass-produced objects made unique through their idiosyncratic wear and tear. I focus on how these common objects act as markers of time and place while also conjuring personal histories, collective desires and cultural phenomena. I gravitate towards items that bridge connections and disseminate information, from traditional formats like books and records to ever-evolving digital artifacts like QR codes. The works range from depicting singular objects to more layered compositions of mark-making, images and ephemera.

The work was exhibited at Catharine Clark Gallery May 11-July 3, 2024

CONSTELLATIONS

This ongoing series of drawings pull from ephemera surrounding us and capture casual, poetic daily moments. Through the work I focus on the act of recording; attempting to slow the inevitable march of time through deep-listening and mindful observation. Over the past three years my work has been informed by the development of my child, complexities of parenthood, family dynamics and pandemic domesticity. The drawings are rendered at 1:1 scale, honoring the presence and collected “life” of an object. 

Belongings

The watercolor paintings in the series Belongings, depict personal objects and ephemera that question and rediscover ideas embodied in these effects. The paintings, created in the anticipation of the birth of my and my wife’s child, and continued through the first year, are intended to create a space for future conversations and continued development. To not simply see the belongings but as a way of finding belonging; to be together.

Correspondence

When I rediscovered letters my father wrote me while serving in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. Decades later the letters import an even deeper significance personally, historically and politically. In rereading the letters, I was reminded of the family bonds that held us together despite the emotional, political and geographical distance between us. Through the series, Correspondence, I attempt to embody my Father’s perspective through methodically recreating the letters in watercolor. In the process of transcribing the documents into painted objects, I find empathy for my father where I once was an angry and confused teenager. As I painted, his words brought on new meanings and associations as he dispatched fatherly advice, beliefs, doubts and experiences of a war that continues to impact our lives.

Vexed

Vexillology is the study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags or, by extension, any interest in flags in general.

The video is a paced compositing of the flags of 241 nations and territories on Earth creating one polychromatic, amalgamated flag, simultaneously representing all nations. In an age of increased isolationism, fanaticism and reactive nationalism, the abstracted design, as well as shared and opposing graphic elements of the flags, confuse and distort any simplistic national ensign and understanding. This project blurs the boundaries of nationalism to expose the complexities of immigration, globalism and proposes an emblem of our shared, planetary existence.

RECLAMATION

Based in the history pastoral California landscape painting, and injected with remains of the regions complicated military history, the paintings imagine the decommissioned bunkers further dissolution into the landscape and highlight their isolated and largely forgotten past. My further interest in them is their former function as observation outposts: always on guard, looking out for a threat that never came. As objects of protection and defense they also carry the weight of militaristic control. For me, along with those dialogues, they are a metaphor for the artist – an active but stationary observer.