The Frame Will Walk: Understanding Inheritance and Transition
Exhibition dates: March 22 - April 2, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, March 22 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Untitled, ash, hardware, 7' x 4' x 4'
Detail, Untitled
Same View, steel, ash, screen, hardware, 5 ' x 5' x 3'
Artist Statement
Growing from an interest in the Guilt-Shame Cultural Spectrum, my work looks at Southern-American familial concepts of morality and individuality. When an individual encounters the mysterious forces of transformation, the ingredients which previously defined them are altered. It becomes clear which values someone will unwaveringly clutch, and which ones can be shed. In the midst of a culture which no longer practices an organized rite of passage, art-making takes the place.
I exercise and represent the values which orient me both as an individual, and as an extension of my heritage. Fine craftsmanship and an obsessive degree of labor are part of that heritage. Originally an effort to separate inherited values from personal ones, my work now seeks to abolish the distinction. Art is an alchemical approach to weaknesses and insecurities. In my life, I have subscribed to binary belief models, but I am between the poles. Transition, represented by the potential to move, is a key element of my sculpture.
I think a person’s background serves as a structure, be it a house-frame or a skeleton, upon which a life can be built. Nurtured views are felt viscerally by the believers--in the bones, if you will. Not all bones are strong, or well-placed. Some are weak, malformed, or burnish adjacent bones. Nonetheless, they may morph across a lifespan. It is a beautiful and motivational fact: that the deepest notions of who we are can be challenged and changed.