In the garden during the war
We are in the garden during the war. You are the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. The sacred is still sacred even when it is desecrated. We are the gardeners. We are the court jesters. We are the canaries. I make work that responds directly to these ideas and have consistently over the past 5-6 years. The materials may change but the devotion and heartbreak remain constant. My practice is like a garden, with different parts more active or dormant depending on the time of year.
Breaking News!
Breaking News! is a collection of mixed media installations that take place in my studio directly on the walls. Using chalk pastels, paper, and other materials I am making a series of translations that are between set, sculpture, and drawing. This is the breaking news we want to be reading. I photograph this ongoing changing installation with my camera, and the photograph and/or video becomes the record and object of the event.
Planted: Early Fall 2018
OBSERVATIONAL DRAWINGS FROM THE FIELD
A collection of two ongoing series of observational drawings. The first: drawings of a central character who is under constant assault with ink on paper. The second: drawings of the garden as a memory and as a living subject, with chalk pastels on paper.
Planted: Early Spring 2018
PORTRAITS OF OUR COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
A collection that spans the imaginary and the historic. Seeing it all as a form of portraiture and landscape. The earth body and your body are breathing. Rendered as sculpture, drawing/painting, and mixed media.
Planted: Mid-Summer 2017
THE OTHER BORDER WALL PROPOSALS
Six proposals that were submitted by J.M. Design Studios on April 4, 2017 to the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security for their "Other Border Wall" Request For Qualifications.
Planted: Early Winter 2017
SLOW N.E.W.S. IN FASCIST TIMES
When Donald J. Trump announced in 2015 he wanted to be the President, I drew him as the cartoon villain as a daily practice. When the nightmare was confirmed in November 2016, I picked up my camera out of a need to somehow see the photographs of him more closely, and I took pictures of these pictures. I edited the images with a simple editing app and turned them into black and white digital negatives. Some of these were printed in the darkroom. Some were published in a limited edition newspaper. This is slow N.E.W.S. in fascist times.
Planted: Summer 2015
SLATE BEDS
A collection of beds that are made from slate that I have dug up out of the earth or am recycling from antique roofing slates. Rendered with fabric and paint. These are beds that can lay on a table or hang on a wall, but their intention is to create a space for dreaming and sleeping during the chaos and cacophony of war. They are found in the garden, they are the garden beds.
Planted: Summer 2016
SLATE BODIES
A collection of female bodies and body parts that half human, half non-human and all animal. These are rendered life-size and mounted directly onto the walls. They assume their own identities and are made as a combination of witness and character in the garden during the war.
Planted: Summer 2015
WATERFALL VISION
This is a nearly 80’ long painting that is both a rendering of Niagara Falls and a visual depiction of the American Civil War that seems to be never-ending. Through a continuous set of lines and rendered on repurposed slate roofing tiles, a cascade of abstract narrative is seen.
Planted: Winter 2015
City without guns
A series of 5 unique collections of wooden organic sticks I have found while walking in the world that are in the shape of guns. These are assembled on the wall as a grid that typically measures 5’ x 5.
Planted: Spring 2013
PERFORMANCE WORKS
In The Garden During the War with Helene Augustine (2018-2019)
Lungs in the Air (2017)
Wild Clarity (2015-2016)
Translations (2014)
Pittsburgh Performance Actions (2013-2014)