Thinking Out Loud: HUM Series. 2018
I am interested in exploiting and extending banality. I select objects that have an attachment to everyday ritual. Some of the objects I am investigating include a Twice-A-Day Pill Organizer, Birthday Party Horn Blowers, Bath & Shower Loofa Brushes and an Unscented Mother Mary Candle. I dip these objects in paint and press them into the surface, layering repetitive marks. I respond to the result of each mark to document the intuitive conversation between my body and the material.
The patterns found within the paintings present a sameness within the confines for an overwhelming experience. Using pattern also speaks to the grid. Due to the nature of the medium, the paint begins to wear and gradient before dunking the object back into the paint every few stamps. The structured idea of the vertical and horizontal relationships within the grid is then transformed into a loosely configured arrangement. The generated space functions similarly to how we may structure our lived experiences and routines.
Milk Box. 2018.
Foam, metal, aerosol cream, paint, plastic string.
Mass. 2018.
Concrete, plastic film and natural materials.
Acrylic Skins. 2016.
“Acrylic Skins” is a focus on material while making connections to and reconsidering how we approach a conventional painting. The pieces work together as a diptych, offering two renditions that include basic elements of art throughout the forms. Using Acrylic paints for hue and a fine pumice gel for stability, the two works have become a demonstration for what our basic foundation to a painting can look like as a raw arrangement.
Similarly to how we rely on the elements and principles of art, which help our work to stand the test of time as a successful piece, our skin is the biggest organ in our body and we rely on it as a protective layer throughout our entire life.
It was important for me to make this work as it allowed me to get back to basics through second nature instincts of making, while also working large enough to become immersed in what I was constructively experiencing. Acrylic Skins represents the underground root system for art and biological life.
Skin of a Man. 2016.
The second stage of the Skin Series revolves around human skin and is a play with silicone molds. As the exploration developed through progress, thread was stitched into the piece and moved the work into a new territory that become reminiscent of serial killers and various pieces of skin furniture or accessories throughout history. The first photo is a detail image of the model’s chin and throat, stitched to the torso which can be seen in the second image.
WHITE COFFEE. 2017.
“White Coffee” deals with identity and encroachment, culture and dissociation. It is an exploration and focus on the destruct of something pure. White Coffee is a third rendition of the Skin Series, finding parallels between the skin of ourselves and the varieties of “skins” around us in everyday life.
The primary medium used throughout this work is a vegetable fiber called Jute. Woven into their forms to hold unroasted Columbian coffee beans, these bags are the skins that hold a rich history and culture both inside and out, carrying and announcing [with its descriptive text] life.
White Coffee is a direct reflection of the now. Our local coffee shops are full of options of added flavours to enhance the taste or creams and sugars which can sometimes mask the bean’s regional notes. These additions can very well make us miss out on the entire experience of recognizing the original cultural tie.
The material has been arranged into a landscape-like form, taking on a similar appearance to the mountains in which many coffee trees reside. By deconstructing the bags and stripping away its identity, only leaving behind few traces the Columbian Country Code (the number 3), this work demonstrates the ways in which we can dissociate ourselves, with our fast paced lifestyles in Westernized society, from the truth and origins of an entire industry that depends on those who handpick coffee cherries and sleep on dirt floors. In the Western World, it often feels more about the brand and customer experience.
TAKE, TAKE, ALTER, ALTER.
Untitled. 2015.
Ross Neher’s Geoform paintings use various hues and values to communicate form and structure which effectively read as multiple 3D boxes.
I have used wood and a single shade of grey paint to create a monochromatic 3-Dimensional exploration in response to Neher’s work. Because my response is a sculpture, the planes I have made create their own box shadows and can appear to act in a similar fashion to Neher’s, pulling the viewer in.