ARTIST STATEMENT
Life is a curious thing, and that’s what motivates me to look at it more closely through art. My art captures lived experiences, from a four year old boy’s delight in chasing a butterfly, to the bizarre sense of being watched under the spotlight of a helicopter hovering above my home one night, to a farmer’s despair at watching his corn crop wither in the heat of a Kansas drought.
While based in reality, my images are never realistic-looking; a bit of fantasy always comes into play. And sometimes I abandon “reality” altogether for creating my own characters who live and love and care and cope in scenes that are fully imaginary.
I am particularly drawn to experiences that are mundane, whimsical, and socially urgent. I like to mix these themes, and find how they link in spirit. I hope that viewers will identify with the stories my pictures tell. I hope that my art, in some small way, deepens our collective appreciation and compassion for each other and for life itself.
Each art piece I make takes a while. I create intricate textures; the process becomes a sort of meditation. I make mosaic-like patterns that support my rather busy aesthetic. I layer images to show two things going on at once. I emphasize gestures, and find myself elongating and distorting hands and limbs to help communicate an idea. Sometimes I include text beside or inside the image. I hope that my compositions are interesting.
My exhibits, which are generally theme-based, are comprised of two-dimensional pieces that hang on the walls, and sometimes include found objects that support the theme. The content of my work is based, in part, on interviews, experiences, and research that go beyond spending time alone in my studio, although I do plenty of that too.
Here is a brief synopsis of my most recent exhibits:
Two Mothers, Two Sons, included the work of two artists, myself and Sara Stalling, and our sons Nicholai (then age 5) and Maya (then age 6). The mother-son connections were expressed in the exhibit, which included some collaborations.
The Experience of Farmers included drawings and collages about hope and struggle, based on more than thirty interviews I conducted with farmers from Kansas , Nebraska , and Minnesota .
Weathering the Storm: Stories of Perseverance included drawings and collages based on stories of perseverance from friends and family. Among them were stories of living with cancer, fixing a leaky roof, running out of water while hiking in the desert, and enduring a hot summer working at a dilapidated miniature golf course in south central Kansas .
Meetings included drawings and collages based on specific times when people came together for a reason, among them academics deciding the fate of a tenure applicant, friends sipping tea, a father-son phone call about an instance of police brutality, and friends hiking together and collecting geodes.