The human condition has been defined as the paradoxical state of having awareness of an individual’s
limitations and mortality, while lacking the ability to alter fate. Through my work, I intend to contribute
to the evolving dialogue of the human condition. I believe that visual art is a forum in which questions
can be posed in the absence of immediate answers. Therefore, art has the potential to present new
imagery and provides the artist the capacity to stumble upon new information.
It is because of the experiential nature of the human condition that I have chosen to use scientific
approaches in order to better understand philosophical questions of existence. The sciences
have a generally accepted reputation for proving or disproving hypotheses through observation,
experimentation, and repetition. My work utilizes scientific approaches and the collection and analysis
of empirical data in order to explore the minute details of human experience more thoroughly.
Using situational satire and a variety of materials and processes, I juxtapose seemingly unrelated
subjects to create compelling imagery; medical protocol and domestic objects, geological analysis and
architecture, agricultural practices and human social interaction. To complete my projects, I solicit
assistance from professionals working in a diverse range of scientific disciplines. Collaborating with
practitioners in various branches of study gives my work a level of authenticity that I could not provide
on my own.
My early work employed procedures used in postmortem examination, dissection, cross-sectional
photography, and geological core sampling, in order to better understand the internal characteristics of
common objects. Specific household objects, in some cases entire buildings, are chosen based on their
sociocultural associations and are disassembled following scientific protocol. Video documentation of
their painstaking deconstruction is exhibited alongside the object’s remains. I have found that revealing
the process with the final product gives the viewer insight into the object’s original form, and provokes
a visceral reaction to a once familiar object.
Living in the panhandle of North Idaho and conducting research in the Netherlands has allowed me
to incorporate agricultural techniques in my most recent work. Social Gathering establishes subtle
connections that link cattle feeding patterns to social interaction at the dinner table. A custom steel
bale feeder was fabricated at approximately one-half scale and affixed to an altered (lowered by two
feet) oak claw foot dinner table. Steel brackets have been attached to the oak leaf insert allowing
the table and bale feeder to expand for company. KOE is a response to the agricultural landscape
throughout the Netherlands’ northeastern province of Drenthe. The Netherlands’ landscape is divided
into a grid of ditches created to defend against the increasing threat of floods due to the region’s
relation to sea level. I decided shortly after I arrived in Kolderveen that the best approach for my
project was to borrow several important aspects from the Dutch countryside, and to place them all
together in one spot to make a site-specific installation. The resulting piece isolated one live koe (cow)
on one parcel of land contained by a single electric fence and surrounded by a hand-dug circular dike
filled with water. I worked with several dairy farmers from the Kolderveen community to complete this
piece, and to ensure that the cow was safe and content for the duration of the exhibition.
My work is driven by conceptual intent. Once an idea is fully developed, aesthetic decisions and material
choices function primarily to communicate the concept to the viewer. Humor plays an important role
in the communication process. I use humor in my work, because I have found it to be a suitable catalyst
for extended thought. Whether performing a postmortem examination on La-Z-Boy recliner, or
working with a live cow in order to establish an isolation from the herd, my work exploits objects of
direct experience and explores our relationship with our daily surroundings.