Statement & Process
(2004)"My purpose in creating these pieces is to illustrate, from as many possible
perspectives, nothing less than the process of the evolution of consciousness."
The only thing that really excites me these days is the exploration of the
myriad manifestations of consciousness. Every piece I do is somehow an
exploration of some aspect of the process of becoming more human.
As I write this, I am
currently working through a series of pieces that use a specific “house”
reference. This image has haunted me since my college years, and probably even
earlier in a more unconscious way. Every variation, every experiment with
different materials and processes bring me back to the same essential,
underlying form.
As I meditate upon this form, I have come to peace with it. I realize now
that it is "Me" in a metaphorical context. I am this house, in that who "I" am
could be seen as a container for my essential nature, however that might be
seen. However, this container can also be seen as a restriction in that it
separates me from the continuum from which it emerges from. the four walls and
roof line "carves" itself from a preexisting matrix forming the essential
duality of subject (house) and object (environment).
Every piece I make is a direct reflection of my interior struggle with the
ongoing process of growing and moving deeper towards some teleological "goal"
that I can't even fathom at this point. There are times that it feels as though
a deal has been struck between myself and some infinity "out there" that forces
me to make these art objects. The deal states that I can't move forward in
consciousness unless I document my progress with a series of sculptures
illustrating my struggle. Maybe it's like some kind of bread-crumb trail I'm
leaving behind so that someone else can find liberation, or at least not get
lost in this particular corner of the woods. But that in itself is a pretty
major conceit...maybe I'll just get us all lost. Oh well...at least it won't be
boring!
As a practicing Buddhist, I have run across many references in the Sutras
that relate to my process. But by far the best is one called "The Buddha's Song
of Victory" This was what the Buddha said upon reaching ultimate Nirvana under
the Bo tree. It goes like this:
"Many a House of life
Hath held me - seeking ever him who wrought
These prisons of the senses, sorrow-fraught;
Sore was my ceaseless strife:
'But now,
Thou Builder of this House - Thou!
I know thee: Never shall Thou build again
These walls of pain,
Nor raise the roof-tree of deceits, nor lay
Fresh rafters on the clay;
Broken Thy house is, and the ridge pole split:
Delusion fashioned it:
Safe pass I thence - deliverance to obtain."
Background (1999)
Stephan DeStaebler once said:
"Artists don't get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the
pain of not working."
Truer words have never been spoken. it's taken a long time to surrender to
what it is that I must do. Ever since leaving art school in 1983, I have spent
tremendous amounts of energy trying to escape my basic artistic nature. Using
the word "destiny" would not be too strong here. I have spent the better part of
two decades learning skills to replace my inherent need to create art. I have
become proficient at cabinet making, house building, mechanical (heating and
cooling), database design, computer graphics, web design, set construction,
hot-rod painting, scene painting, faux-finishing, fiber-glass work, interior
design work, bronze casting, neon bending, all types of welding, and even
blacksmithing. a reoccurring theme with all of these skills is that as soon as I
become proficient enough to start making money at any one of them, I immediately
become bored and dropped it.
From where I stand now, I see that all that searching was to show me,
unequivocally, that I am destined to create art. All these skills can now be
harnessed to do exactly that.
Since it's become obvious that I have no choice but to open myself up as far
as possible and walk boldly into these realms so that I can bring forth these
objects into the world. Maybe people will find some value in them. I can't know
that. People will find whatever they need to find through an encounter with my
work. So be it.
