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Fam Farm 2010
Fam Farm reflect the loss of natural farming within westernized culture. Genetic modification, factory farming, as well as deceitful packaging and misguided labeling results in confusion and a disconnection between customer and the source of their food. Each drawing describes in various ways a group of chickens or pigs wrapped in flowing pretty pink ribbons. These ribbons operate to suggest manipulative tactics within the packaging and labeling of food leading to costumer confusion. The plucked areas detailed within each animal were used to suggest the preparation of food, specifically pointing toward factory farming, and how each animal born is essentially “an inanimate structure” whose short-lived and harsh existence is designed in service of human consumption.
Une Obsession Tranquille 2009
Une Obsession Tranquille considers the clichés and perversions within the confines of monogamous love, given the freedoms to share ones unadulterated and absolute self, unconsciously. This series was in reaction to my first year of marriage while working in Lyon, France.
The substitution of elephants for the human body was in an attempt to create a visual expression of sexuality and love, barring the application of any accustomed westernized female or male physical guidelines of beauty and sex. The elimination of the physical human form was also in effort to eradicate any sense of self-awareness. The lack of self-consciousness and vulnerability when replacing physical human form gave way to the possibility of exposing one’s absolute self, their secrets, and inevitable perversions.
Each image displays an act of humorous oddity engaged between two unconditionally accepting animal forms. To further imply the natural unwavering acceptance of the other’s true self, the series was drawn in a quiet monochromatic pallet, an intimate size format, and infused with richly tantalizing details in hopes to celebrate the revealing and acceptance of our lovers and our own personal imperfections.
Prickled Lilly Perch 2007
“Within the cycles of existence, we should experience ourselves as elements of greater unity.” Bill Viola
The Prickled Lilly Perch series illustrates and studies the cyclical system of birth, life, and death. These graphite drawings imply a sense of human unity within the cycles of existence and investigate birth, life, and death through multivalent, polar conditions. My work explores the extremes of the human condition through symbols and structures that allow viewers to confront their own mortality with relative ease and a sense of grace. Questions like - Who am I? Why am I here? - are a result of my awareness of a physical beginning and end. My work poses no answers to these issues, but functions as a device to meditate and reflect on mortality and the cycle of existence.
I chose a visual language of whimsy, subtle narration, symbols, decoration and delicate detailing to contradict and undercut the psychological and emotional content of birth and death. In addition, this series references the absurd, ironic combination of innocence and morbidity within children’s book. A strategy which can be similarly seen within Edward Gorey’s Gashleycrumb Tinies and Maurice Sendak’s Outside Over There.
The Prickled Lilly Perch series utilized the conventions of drawing to create intimacy and a sense of calm. To achieve this, I made these drawings to be small in scale with an achromatic palette. Also, I preserved large amounts of white space, allowing visual breathing room, simplifying form and structure. |
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