Boxes
THE LONG HAUL
The pieces in this series are built in 76" long, shallow wooden boxes that originally contained lead channel (technically called lead "came") used to make stained-glass. The Long Haul refers to both the amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B, and also to all the points along the path traveled. The materials that compose the sculptures -- whether antique glass x-rays and bones, spoons and small figures, or undulating ropes of buttons -- flow through their wooden embankments, defining a small slice of space/time. They were built between 2016 and 2018.
Pieces from this series have been exhibited at The Front Gallery in Montpelier, Vermont; AVA in Lebanon, NH; the Julian Scott Memorial Gallery at Northern Vermont University, Studio Place Arts (SPA) in Barre, Vermont, and the Vermont Supreme Court Gallery in Montpelier, Vermont.
Seventeen
A numerical sequence of objects, paired with a quote from a poem by Wislawa Szymborska: I am no longer sure that what's important is more important than what's not important."
Homage to Marge
Antique glass x-rays over bones and gauze, with LED lights. An homage to a friend who died of lung cancer.
Going Down
Figure with egagropili body, animal figurines, international currency, Alphabet card file with words related to death.
River
Wooden kitchen implements, burned metal tableware, metal human figures (nail people).
Baggage
Ten figures seated in a boat traveling to the underworld accompanied by the goods and obsessions they couldn't bear to leave behind.
Stromatolites for the Next Age
Piles of buttons, beads, and small impaled plastic figures. Photosynthesizing cyanobacterial mats called stromatolites were early lifeforms that released oxygen into the atmosphere and paved the way for us and the other oxygen-breathing organisms that share the planet. As Earth changes in the Anthropocene, how will life adapt to a changed environment?
Cage
This box is clad in aluminum, with a one-inch grid cover. The contents are bones and fur. A study published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June, 2018 reported that humans now account for 36% of the biomass of terrestrial mammals, and their livestock account for another 60%. That leaves only 4% for all the planet's other mammals.
Parade
A parade, or perhaps a march
Brown's Burden
Animals with military vehicles strapped on
Railroaded
A cart loaded with logs travels from end to end
DIALOGUE
All the pieces in the Dialogue series have two tall figures -- an animal and a human -- each with a "chalkboard" stating their different perspectives. The pieces explore the relationship between people and other animals -- their similarities, differences, and conflicts.
Dialogue 1
Mixed media, eleven drawers with digital collages, 33X13.5X9" , 2015
Dialogue 2
Mixed media, 18X23.5X9.5", 2015
Dialogue 3
Mixed media (wishbones, wood, metal), 23X14X14", 2015
CABINETS
Cabinets and cases that open and close. The first one has female characters; in the last two I've tried to explore the experience of maleness.
Black and White
Buttons, digital copies of antique photographs. Case made by Sean Matthew McKinney. Race is a social construct, not a genetic reality.
Men's Cabinet
Interior of cabinet has objects from each aspect of a traditional, stereotypical man's life: A Man's World, Body Care, Home and Family, His Workshop, Outdoor Life. The inside of the door, at left, identifies the five "rooms" in the interior at right. 22X15X8", 2015
Closet
Exterior has a digital copy of a portrait of a young man, installed over the mirror of the medicine cabinet this originally was. The interior has antique albumen photographs of men and a silk-lined garment made with buttons and wire. 27X15X8", 2015