Statement
A number of years ago I began to create objects from the piles of discards I had reclaimed from various waste streams I was studying. My desire to repurpose these usable materials was influenced by my understanding of Depression Era thrift and Chinese and Japanese gardening practices. At that time, I embraced the functionality of reclamation and started The Reclamation Project to promote this work of reclaiming nature, displaying birdhouses, pollinator insect habitats and garden accoutrements at street & craft fairs, green general stores and plant nurseries.
More study of Chinese and Japanese iconography allowed me to apply the stylistic lessons, carving and painting on found wood. Not only the wood was reclaimed, so too was the paint, stain and imagery from magazines, books and, amazingly, hundreds of photos I found in dumpsters. The conversations I had been having with diverse audiences about a world of efficiency and thrift resonated more in terms of memory and emotion. I realized I had deepened and extended the metaphor of reclamation and began to see my work as lenses that examine how our culture of convenience allows us to discard or overlook objects, ideas and communities we no longer feel comfortable discussing or saving.
Work alone does not make one an artist, only dynamic engagement with community roots aesthetics to pragmatics, form to function. So, along with my carving, I began educating students from 5 to 50 about organic gardening practices, reuse and recycling awareness and the communicative aspects of art as well as organizing community clean ups. And I continued looking for diverse opportunities to display and discuss the process and themes of my art, showing in galleries, boutiques & universities and at fundraisers, gardens & governmental offices; any place the work could be used to have a deeper conversation about gentrification or sustainability or homelessness.
I continue my work carving and as a community activist. it is inside this nexus of art and social & environmental justice that is the true passion of my life. And I now realize that my work has always been the conversation the lens generates, not the lens itself. This has led me to installation, looking for ways to produce Incidents of Conversation that engage audiences to dialog about the mechanisms and necessities of social construction, for it is in this study of the structure of our lives that we can find the space to care rather than discard.