artist statements
What to say, what to say…
I wish that a piece of artwork could say or
impart to the viewer the realm of reality in
which the piece was created. The state of
mind that the artist operates in and the
thoughts and ideas that are expressed using
a visual media are undoubtedly owned by the
artist. The artist can only hope that the
viewer will see beyond the visual media and
become engaged with the essence of the
piece. The very act of producing a physical
object is not born of materialism, but rather of
a place in reality that is removed from this
temporal existence where we see red apples
with our eyes and smell fresh orchids as we
breathe the air which surrounds our physical
bodies. The act of making art is born of
another state of reality that opposes the
physical concrete world. The realm that I am
referring would be that of the mind, which
some philosophers have referred to as the
spiritual side of humanity. I believe that we
exist in a field of opposites in our natural
setting of night and day, spring and fall, male
and female…and in our own individual
organism such as good and evil, love and
hate, intellect and emotion… therefore we are
left with the dualism between the body and
the spirit.
A thought or an idea is born in the spirit of a
person. It becomes manifest physically as an
object that is formed by the artist and
received again on a spiritual plane by the
viewer as they encounter the artwork. The
sole responsibility of the audience is to
become sensitive in their viewing of the
object. What do you see and hear in your
mind? What is your reaction to the objects
that lie before you?
My desire in this exhibit is to have a physical
impact upon your experience of viewing the
art. I will exchange with you the object of my
thoughts (one of the figures on the floor) with
the physical manifestation of your thoughts.
By that, I invite you to write on the walls of
this room. What do you write, you may ask?
Any thought that comes to mind. Does this
show speak to you? Who do you see on the
pedestal in your life? Is it Mother, like it was
for me in my youth? Or is it Father, as it
stands today. Could it be the preacher in
your church, or the person on the big screen
who is perhaps the source of an inner
fantasy? Perhaps your thought doesn't relate
to the show at all. Maybe your thought is
about the hectic daily chores you have
created for yourself or the lady who cut in
front of you on your way into the gallery.
Never the less, whatever it is, a trade I would
like to make with you. An object for a
thought.
I wish that a piece of artwork could say or
impart to the viewer the realm of reality in
which the piece was created. The state of
mind that the artist operates in and the
thoughts and ideas that are expressed using
a visual media are undoubtedly owned by the
artist. The artist can only hope that the
viewer will see beyond the visual media and
become engaged with the essence of the
piece. The very act of producing a physical
object is not born of materialism, but rather of
a place in reality that is removed from this
temporal existence where we see red apples
with our eyes and smell fresh orchids as we
breathe the air which surrounds our physical
bodies. The act of making art is born of
another state of reality that opposes the
physical concrete world. The realm that I am
referring would be that of the mind, which
some philosophers have referred to as the
spiritual side of humanity. I believe that we
exist in a field of opposites in our natural
setting of night and day, spring and fall, male
and female…and in our own individual
organism such as good and evil, love and
hate, intellect and emotion… therefore we are
left with the dualism between the body and
the spirit.
A thought or an idea is born in the spirit of a
person. It becomes manifest physically as an
object that is formed by the artist and
received again on a spiritual plane by the
viewer as they encounter the artwork. The
sole responsibility of the audience is to
become sensitive in their viewing of the
object. What do you see and hear in your
mind? What is your reaction to the objects
that lie before you?
My desire in this exhibit is to have a physical
impact upon your experience of viewing the
art. I will exchange with you the object of my
thoughts (one of the figures on the floor) with
the physical manifestation of your thoughts.
By that, I invite you to write on the walls of
this room. What do you write, you may ask?
Any thought that comes to mind. Does this
show speak to you? Who do you see on the
pedestal in your life? Is it Mother, like it was
for me in my youth? Or is it Father, as it
stands today. Could it be the preacher in
your church, or the person on the big screen
who is perhaps the source of an inner
fantasy? Perhaps your thought doesn't relate
to the show at all. Maybe your thought is
about the hectic daily chores you have
created for yourself or the lady who cut in
front of you on your way into the gallery.
Never the less, whatever it is, a trade I would
like to make with you. An object for a
thought.
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Pedestal Installation, 2001
Suit Coat Series, 2003-2005
The sculptures in this body of work
reflectively explore the human figure in
relationship to my preoccupation with the
male identity. The sculptures are portraits of
specific individuals that I had personally
encountered while growing up in Oklahoma.
The freestanding forms depict elderly
gentlemen of various professional
dispositions who had attempted to achieve
respective levels of success in their chosen
fields of interest. There are emotional,
physical and psychological elements
interwoven into these figures with the use of
found objects that are generally personal to
each individual depicted. By using the
process of serigraphy on wood, I designed
coat jackets that are bold in color and
repetitive in line quality, while depicting
memories of these individuals in an abstract
manner.
On a deeper psychological level, it is through
these figures that I came to realize my own
inability to find the financial and professional
success that I had consciously disallowed
myself to desire, suppressed for reasons of a
disillusioned notion of spirituality where my
focus was too much on heaven and not
enough on the natural world. I also realized
that the lack of strong female leadership in my
life had left me with an underdeveloped sense
of self as a woman. While there are parallels
between the male and female sexes in regard
to the skills and intellectual ability needed to
work successfully in today’s economy, it has
been in the masculine gender that I had
sought to find ties to identity, but now realize
that my self worth can only be developed in
an honest appraisal of who I am as a woman.
reflectively explore the human figure in
relationship to my preoccupation with the
male identity. The sculptures are portraits of
specific individuals that I had personally
encountered while growing up in Oklahoma.
The freestanding forms depict elderly
gentlemen of various professional
dispositions who had attempted to achieve
respective levels of success in their chosen
fields of interest. There are emotional,
physical and psychological elements
interwoven into these figures with the use of
found objects that are generally personal to
each individual depicted. By using the
process of serigraphy on wood, I designed
coat jackets that are bold in color and
repetitive in line quality, while depicting
memories of these individuals in an abstract
manner.
On a deeper psychological level, it is through
these figures that I came to realize my own
inability to find the financial and professional
success that I had consciously disallowed
myself to desire, suppressed for reasons of a
disillusioned notion of spirituality where my
focus was too much on heaven and not
enough on the natural world. I also realized
that the lack of strong female leadership in my
life had left me with an underdeveloped sense
of self as a woman. While there are parallels
between the male and female sexes in regard
to the skills and intellectual ability needed to
work successfully in today’s economy, it has
been in the masculine gender that I had
sought to find ties to identity, but now realize
that my self worth can only be developed in
an honest appraisal of who I am as a woman.
Undoing Installation, 2007
As a sculptor, I am intrinsically motivated to
work large scale. “Portal of Transcendence”
and “Pulpit”, are two examples of my work
that are independent pieces, unrelated in
their content. For my MFA thesis exhibition,
on the other hand, I have created a series of
separate pieces that, when assembled as an
installation, will create an abstract house that
narrates the story of my own search for
identity. The first element in my installation
that is seen by the viewer as they walk into
the gallery is an old reconstructed oil tank
that is ten feet in diameter and about eight
feet tall. This tank was originally used in the
Seminole oil fields during the 1920’s. Next to
it is a four-foot tall deck that is covered with
expanded metal. It is fourteen feet wide.
Emerging from this deck are two flying
buttresses that connect to the main body of
the installation. The main body of the piece
consists of four ten-foot tall pillars that
support an eleven-foot by eleven-foot deck.
There are three levels of interest, beginning
with the space under the deck, where I have
placed children’s clothes on top of dirt along
the outer edge of the deck. On top of the
deck sits a small green round house that is
seven-feet in diameter and five-feet tall.
Suspended above the round house is a full
sized bed that represents the third level of
interest. The four pillars are connected
together at the top with various head boards
and foot boards. Each area within the
installation has a very specific meaning
related to my search for identity throughout
my childhood, adolescence and now
adulthood.
work large scale. “Portal of Transcendence”
and “Pulpit”, are two examples of my work
that are independent pieces, unrelated in
their content. For my MFA thesis exhibition,
on the other hand, I have created a series of
separate pieces that, when assembled as an
installation, will create an abstract house that
narrates the story of my own search for
identity. The first element in my installation
that is seen by the viewer as they walk into
the gallery is an old reconstructed oil tank
that is ten feet in diameter and about eight
feet tall. This tank was originally used in the
Seminole oil fields during the 1920’s. Next to
it is a four-foot tall deck that is covered with
expanded metal. It is fourteen feet wide.
Emerging from this deck are two flying
buttresses that connect to the main body of
the installation. The main body of the piece
consists of four ten-foot tall pillars that
support an eleven-foot by eleven-foot deck.
There are three levels of interest, beginning
with the space under the deck, where I have
placed children’s clothes on top of dirt along
the outer edge of the deck. On top of the
deck sits a small green round house that is
seven-feet in diameter and five-feet tall.
Suspended above the round house is a full
sized bed that represents the third level of
interest. The four pillars are connected
together at the top with various head boards
and foot boards. Each area within the
installation has a very specific meaning
related to my search for identity throughout
my childhood, adolescence and now
adulthood.