Latest Additions

Following

A couple of new pieces debuted at one of my shows earlier this year and I wanted to follow up on my promise to explain the concepts behind the pieces.  The last post discussed one piece within a series of four, the "Last Drop" series, while this post discusses a singular piece.

"Following" is a quite literal visual representation of the "yellow brick road".  Although I'm fascinated by the ever-over-analyzed significance of the yellow brick road in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as a viewer of the film, I took the film at face value and interpreted the road quite literally.  I saw it as a road the characters of the story followed to reach their destination in order to, ultimately, fulfill their goals and desires.  Aren't we all driven to keep walking this road, in pursuit of our dreams, goals, or whatever it is that drives us forward? 

Being very straight, and sharply disappearing into the horizon, the road in this piece represents our sometimes maniacal, obsessive need to continue on whatever road we're currently on, without detour, and regardless of the consequences or surroundings.  A dichotomy can grow, over time, between our original intentions upon starting down a certain path, and what will actually make us happy.  We can also lose sight of why we chose the path in the first place, so even though we're following a well trodden path, we could still be "lost". 

When I made this piece, I was thinking a lot about our obsessiveness with obtaining "success", as defined by our society.  The barren landscape and the strictly laid path is representative of the way societally defined paths can sometimes inhibit our creative selves and our ability to reflect upon our choices.  I was also thinking a lot about material possessions and wealth, and the disparity between our society and the rest (majority) of the world.  We are constantly being told to pursue greater wealth in our American society, regardless of the real cost to our neighbors and the world around us.  Does this ever-present pressure to pursue the classic "road to riches" cause us to lose sight of our very humanity?

Following

Monotype, acrylic, oil pastel

15" x 21", 22" x 28" framed,

black wood with archival materials

Last Drop Series

Last Drop: Water

A couple of new pieces debuted at one of my shows earlier this year and I wanted to follow up on my promise to explain the concepts behind the pieces.  This post will discuss the first piece, one of four, in a series that explores the subject of dwindling natural resources.  The series is actually closely related to the Focus series I completed in the past year.  In both, my goal is to highlight a distinct “point” in the work, which represents the “elephant in the room”, so to speak.

Prompted by a growing awareness of how our society is based upon a system of distraction from serious and dire threats to our very well being, the "Last Drop" series attempts to highlight some of the most important resources and how they will be consumed to extinction if we don’t change the way we consume and, fundamentally, function as a society, both locally and globally.  This first piece is representative of the resource “Water”. This resource has been on the forefront of my mind in recent years, as the world at large has stood by and allowed privatization and pollution of what I consider a community owned resource.

Regardless of the facts that there are wars across the world being fought over this shrinking resource, that millions of refugees are borne out of a need to migrate from their homes in search of water, and that 36 of the United States of America could reach a water crisis in the next five years, we still continue to consume water at an unsustainable rate, as if it will be infinitely available to us.  We’re certainly not fighting privatization efforts or the concept of comodification of water.  Walk into any grocery or convenience store and you’ll still see bottled water lining the shelves, and people purchasing it at a premium, even though they can get it for free from the tap.  Meanwhile, the bottled water companies are buying up farmlands, indigenous lands, wilderness tracts, and whole water systems, often located in developing countries, depleting the water there, then moving on to ravish even more.  This is done without remorse, without accountability or regulation, and without any pretense of compensating for the devastation they leave in their wake.  It is done in the name of Profit.  That this practice is still legally allowed in our world, much less supported by our own purchasing of the “commodity”, seems ethically, environmentally and socially wrong.

On the bright side, since I completed the first "Last Drop" piece, the United Nations General Assembly (amazingly) added water and sanitation to their list of basic human rights.  This is a huge victory and step forward in the effort to retain water as a publicly owned/shared resource! 

If you’re interested in learning more about water, issues of consumption, and privatization, check out activist Maude Barlow’s “Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water”.  It will change the way you consume this precious resource.

Last Drop: Water

Monotype, acrylic, oil pastel

18" x 18", 24" x 24" framed in

black wood frame with archival materials

Art Hop 2010

This Weekend

I'm showing at VEIC this year and it's a great space so come by and take a look if you're out hopping about.  I've got my stuff priced to sell to clear out inventory and make room for the new!  Also, if you haven't seen my sculptural ceramics in person yet, they're also on display.  Hope to see you there!

    9/10  Friday 5-9 p.m.
    9/11  Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
    255 South Champlain Street