Michael Baggarly 
Robin Baker 
Jesse Blumenthal 
Hopi Breton 
Jason Sheridan Brown 
Jeremy Colbert 
Gwen Yen Chiu 
Jeff Crawford 
Wendy Croskrey 
Ashley Hope Carlisle 
Jack Gron 
Pawel Czekanski 
Mike Feeney 
Yousif Del Valle 
Paige Henry 
Gerry Dumlao 
Tobias Flores 
Jordan Eaton 
Tom Fox 
Ryan Lamfers 
Daniel Hunt 
Jonathan Hils 
Hannes Garrett 
James L. Hayes 
Aaron Juarros 
Rian Kerrane 
Lauren Koch 
Elizabeth Kronfield 
Noah Kirby 
David Jones 
Coral Penelope Lambert 
David Lobdell 
Elena Lourenco 
Kelly Ludeking 
Zane Mahanna 
Bryan W. Massey, Sr. 
David Marquez 
Erika McIlnay 
Nikki Moser 
Rainey Rawles 
Christopher Meyer 
Miles
Woody Stauffer
Rich Stewart 
Mary Neubauer 
Jennifer Odem 
Isaac Sandoval 
Tamsie Ringler 
Christyn Overstake 
Kenneth Payne 
Michał Staszczak 
Alison Ouellette-Kirby 
Phoenix Savage 
Kerianne Quick 
Wayne Potratz 
Cassandra
Rebman
Luke Sides 
Danielle L Robinson 
Stacey Rathert 
James Wade 
Roberto Visani 
Vaughn Randall 
Kevin Vanek 
Walter Ware III 
Kristy Summers 
James D. Vanderpool 
Durant Thompson 
Matthew C. Wicker 
Ted Uran
Situational Invitational Statements
Nagging Discomfort
Hammered and Welded Steel
9.5″ x 9.5″ x 7″
Nagging Discomfort was originally started in 2019 and remained unfinished in my studio. During the beginning of the pandemic I was tasked with 3D Printing PPE gear for medical workers for the state of Tennessee. With many hours of open time between prints, I returned to unfinished pieces that were related or relevant to addressing the stress/ struggle of dealing with the pandemic. I am immunocompromised due to a medication I take to address an auto-immune issue. Nagging Discomfort becomes the physical expression of the worry of “am I infected” that comes with every little cough.
Industrial Revelation # 21
Cast iron, wood
11.5” x 10.5” x 2.5”
This is the most recent work in a series of similar sculptures. In these works anthropomorphized chisels split pieces of found lumbar. The organic line created by splitting the wood shows that this piece of lumber, a utilitarian resource for human use, was once a living tree. I hope these works will help people remember that the natural world is more than simply a repository of resources as well as inspiring a greater sense of connection to non-human inhabitants of our planet.
All aboard the USS Partisanship
The seas ahead are rough
The Venus stands facing itself
In midst of prayer
Surrender
Flight
Collapse
Obese and double left handed
Double left footed
Mouth agape in awe
Exhalation
Fear
and Nonsense
Atop a broken circle
Cycle
Mandala
I created this piece before the coronavirus pandemic, but I feel that it resonates even more for me now. The piece is called Unmoored, which is a response to psychological and emotional feelings around home, identity, and life goals. I was feeling a bit lost at the time. I also wanted to experiment with the contrasting materials of electronic devices and natural objects- I feel there is a lot of tension visually and metaphorically with the two things combined. But I find there is something very cohesive as well in terms of weaving our digital and natural worlds.
In the months since the pandemic hit us and we adjust to Shelter In Place, and new life structure I have felt even more unmoored and uncertain, which really has brought me back to this work.
SURVEY
cast iron, steel, paint & flocking
48 ” h x 18 “w x 8 “
2020
“SURVEY” is a new sculpture that combines the form of a surveyor’s tripod with a miniature fractured landscape in cast iron. My recent work is to create projects that engage viewers in a conversation about the environmental cost of energy extraction from the earth as it relates to our human wants and needs in a consumer culture. This includes site-responsive projects in landscapes affected and altered by mining, fracking and oil & gas exploration. Exploring mountainous landscapes through my artwork has revealed new formal geometric elements in my sculptures, especially triangular shapes and tetrahedron structures. These ”manufactured” landscapes combine industrial and artificial materials with raw materials such as coal and stone in constructive hybrid terrains.
Tug of War
Cast Pewter, string, white-washed maple, graphite
13”x5.5”x5.5” “
2020
In the face of uncertainty, a light has shown on how we as humans are truly separated by each other. More fighting than understanding. More disagreements than resolutions. More guns than peace between ourselves. Each day brings more and more stress and a true tug of war is happening from all involved. Maybe if we all let go, we could find common ground and realize we are in this boat together?
The Shadows of the Mind
Cast iron, steel
57” x 39” x 41.5”
2020
The darkness that flows from the world’s body, gloomy spot,
Pre-dogs our footsteps, and follows us, diaphanous bodies
Watching the nouns circle, and watching the verbs circle,
Till one of them enters the left ear and becomes a shadow
Itself, sweet word in the unwaxed ear.
This is a short history of the shadow, one part of us that’s real.
This is the way the world looks
In late November,
no leaves on the trees, no ledge to foil the lightfall.
-Excerpt from “A Short History of the Shadow”, Charles Wright
Where the Spirt Meets the Bone
Fabricated stainless steel, forged Damascus Steel, cast iron
12”x6”x5”
The Lucinda Williams song “Compassion” is based off a poem her father had wrote about having compassion for others because you never know what may be going through in their lives. This work is a personal reflection about this song and its meaning. In the song, it states “you don’t know what wars are going on, down there where the spirit meets the bone” In many ways we all have our own battles we are fighting through inside and sometimes outside. The house form is made from Stainless Steel that is a that is polished to reflect the viewer into the work or its own environment.
The house is propped up by the end of the Damascus bone like a handle connected to the side of the house form. It represents the door to enter thoughts and feelings of the overall house. No house, situation, or person is perfect, and this tilt is to represent this flaw in the stability. On the other side of the house a brass colored cast iron scull like pin is secured into a bar across the form. It is a safety bar or latch to keep out things or in that are unwanted to get in or out. We truly don’t know what wars are going on, down there where the spirit meets the bone, down there where the spirit meets the bone.
The 2020 pandemic led me to create Writhe. During this difficult time of isolation, I internalized conflicting news reports, observed and surveyed struggles of loved ones. The world suddenly changed. People live in pods at home and online. A mix of fear, hysteria, anxiety, isolation, disgust, and even joy presented itself. The treatment of the material is intentional, raw vs. refined which echos flight-or-fight response in people.
Inside These Walls
Cast Iron, bronze, resin and water putty
17”x 19”x 8”
2020
The artwork titled “Inside These Walls” reflects the uncertainty of fitting into the current parameters. The puzzle cast in iron demonstrates the permanence of the virus and its potential mutations. The home cast in resin counts a loss, and its ghost image reflected on the wall is an intangible threat. A cast bronze hand is a record of a permanent fingerprint. The face behind the wall is made from water putty. This material typically binds/patches an opening in a partition; this perception is our role in mending the break this pandemic has caused.
Still life
Photography
The photographic series presenting burning still lifes is a pessimistic vision of doubt. Basing on ecological issues and the observed climate and social changes, I predict the end of the world to come. Ultimately, the cycle is to have the resonance of a fatalistic prophecy of the burning world. At the same time, I am trying to signal the essence of the problem of modern hunger, with the simultaneous overproduction and waste of food on a massive scale.
KITO
CAST IRON, STEEL
10” x 10” x 8”
Originally sculpted in 2017, cast in iron in March of 2020, finished in May of 2020 thanks to the abundance of free time due to the pandemic.
I don’t often title my pieces but with 2020 opening on the brink of a worldwide pandemic it would be the beginning of many things different and an avenue for a new direction in my artwork.
For a lot of us this year, travel plans were canceled, family gatherings put on hold and our social lives as we knew it would change dramatically.
The year has become a myriad of detours. As a sculptor/teacher all my adult life I am most familiar with casting in iron and bronze. However, as I age, I am looking to work smaller using lighter and easier to fabricate materials. Thin stainless steel sheets have provided the vehicle for the exploration of this new direction.
Land of the Free
Iron, steel, rust, acrylic paint
7”X 10”X 1/8
In this series, including “Land of the Free”, I am investigating the things that brought our country to the high levels of divisiveness and unrest we see today. The paint has been peeling off for years, rusting from the foundations. Foundations built on racism, sexism and oppression. I do not see flying the flag upside down as a desecration. It is telling the world we are under extreme distress and that we do not agree with the current administration. I do not hate our country. I am hoping that the realizations and actions happening today will change it for the better. Our country is held together by the interconnectedness of all people, knotted together making our country unique. Every small action twist and move, tightens or loosens the net we are all a part of. This piece was sand cast, the pattern was made from paracord, and is less than 1/8th inch thick.
Three little birdies
Bronze and Stainless Steel
18″ x 4″ x 6″
This was a present for my 24 year old.
The little birdies are from her younger sisters and her son. It was well received.
Trip Drawing – Carrie Furnaces
drawing on IPad
flat
This drawing documents my trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Zane Mahanna in July of 2020. The adventure was almost two weeks which would usually take up several pages in my sketchbook. This journey certainly deserves multiple pages but because of the work schedule and the social activities after work this ended up being only one page that I did using my IPad. Pittsburgh was an amazing place with all its tunnels, hills, bridges, and industry. It’s a metal casters paradise much like Birmingham, Detroit or Granite City. I could have filled my sketchbook with what I saw in that week alone. The drawing does not show all the wonderful crew and fellow iron casters that were at the event. I can’t say enough about the Carrie Furnace crew and the participants that made that week so enjoyable. At the beginning and the end of the trip I stayed with Alison and Noah where they fed me, I helped Noah install some sculptures, we laughed, we listened to a podcast that sounded like David Lobdell telling bedtime stories, I got bit by a wasp and I fell in a hole.
Defunctionator series: Fox | Burkett
Nickle plated repurposed scrap steel and pottery
12” h x 15” w x 15” d
The Defunctionator surveys what function is. Is the provocation of critical thought, sending a message, or the elicitation of an emotional response any different than the capacity to contain fruit in a vessel, highlight the human form with a sparkling meaningful adornment, or support a sketchbook on a beautifully made wooden desk? Fine and Applied art can and does all of this. The Defunctionator cancels the function (typically a primary defining aspect between fine and applied art) of an applied art object, thus bringing it closer to; if not lands it in the realm of fine art. Clench tight purist.
In the flowers
Bronze
10.75” x 8.25” x 1.75”
This piece is a dedication to my son Connor.
He passed away at the end of February 2019, three weeks after his 28th birthday.
Worshipping False Gods
Cast Iron, welded steel, paint, stains, rust, lacquer
18″h.x 22″w.12″d.
2020
in a time of pandemic
we seek answers
from leaders who failed us
our adoration turns to hollow gods
of our own making
granting no comfort, no redemption
except eternal damnation of our own creation
forever trapped in our misery of ignorance and arrogance
‘The Hole in the tree”
Cast iron, gold leaf, packing blankets, cotton thread & lining & acrylic resin
250cm H x 350cm W x 10cm D
These works were made for a solo exhibition at the MART Gallery in Dublin in 2019, aim to in part remake some of the compositions and elements of these soft works using new casting technologies and materials and subvert the use of hard and soft materials replacing the ephemeral with the permanent and challenging the notion of art production and commodification.
This work is part of series of interconnected sculptural works that aim to re-establish or re-introduce the concerns of a former modernist sculptural language. The works aim to make direct reference to Welsh artist Barry Flanagan ‘soft’ fabric works from the 1960s and ‘70s. In particular his fabric and wood works, June 2nd, 69 from 1969, Untitled I from 1972 and his performative film work The hole in the sea, 1969.
Stay at Home & For Your Crocodile Tears
Digital photograph and cast-iron diptych
object: 8″x13″x8″
‘Stay At Home’ is a digital photograph taken in my attic. Shortly before the Covid-19 outbreak I purchased my first home. Since March 2020, I’ve spent most of my days and nights in my house or in my garden. The stay at home order has kept me busy and alone in my house. Being a single person during this global pandemic has made home both a sanctuary as well as a place of solitary confinement. It has made me long for my friends and family that live in other states but knowing that I may not see them again if I do visit keeps me in place.
The cast object, “For Your Crocodile Tears”, is a part of a texture study that is ongoing. Sometimes I need to keep my hands busy while figuring out larger works. These texture studies allow me to see how different materials translate in cast iron, as well as allow me to try different molding techniques and test the boundaries of how thick or thin I can cast iron. ‘For Your Crocodile Tears’ is an empty cast iron basket with crocodile texture on the bottom and inside of the basket. It is a personal message to someone, but also a more universal message that false tears can never fill a vessel — leaving the other always empty.
Outback
Laser augmented acrylic, paint, 3dprinted PETG, CNC MDF, hardware
72” x 72” x 6″
An assemblage of appropriated digital artifacts related to environmental and biological translations from the web March, 2020 laid over a facetted hendecagon.
Psychedelic Snake Studies
Gel Pen on Paper
30″ x 23″
2020
In general, my work is inspired by the experience of living and my study of Theology. These drawings are influenced by my fascination with snakes, the psychedelic rock posters of the 60’s, and the garden that my wife and I have been growing. I enjoy putting contradicting imagery together, playing with ideas of myth, truth, fantasy, and reality.
View down the Grand Canyon 2053
Ink Jet print
Photo taken from a set built from miniature fabricated components in the Grand Canyon National Park
18” x 28”
2019
I was part of a project in 2019 called SCREE (Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition) in commemoration of John Wesley Powell’s 150th anniversary of his 1000 mile journey into the great unknown of the Green and Colorado Rivers. As a member of the group of over fifty academics, scientists, students, artists, authors, and journalists my role was to make art that addresses the current state of the Colorado River Basin. I was fortunate enough to be selected to be on the Grand Canyon section of the trip, so I had an interest in making work that addressed the future of our public lands and parks. This piece is based on the concept that our public lands are in danger of drastically changing based on the current trajectory of our policies towards land use. The Grand Canyon National is close to pristine as it can be, however if rules about things such as energy exploration are continued to be relaxed, this pristine environment could be in jeopardy.
Aaron Juarros
Free in the country self portrait
photographic construct
“distancing since aught 9”
stay at home 2020,
nice…
no mask required in mines
a shop not a studio
cigars begin / end / begin and
that shine is strong
days blend
” Lor&rd, thank you for suspendaslurry “
melt and pour any metal
i need whenever i fuckin feel like it
introspective 2020 eh?
self care portrait
passion and practice
almost religious
Single Scoop on a Waffle Cone Please
Cast iron, steel, paint.
8’H x 2’W x 1’D
2020
A collector of contemporary detritus and seeing value in material, form, and the inherent history of such finds, Rian Kerrane treats her studio as a laboratory for exploration. The “single scoop” is a deflated rubber innertube cast in iron during the 2018 Western conference in Granite City. The steel column pre-existed in an earlier life as a periscope structure in another of Kerrane’s works. Her current fascination with pairings as equations (this + this = this) led to the melding of these metal elements in a humorous light-hearted work for a heavy, dark summer.
The work exhibited in Secret Garden 2020: a social practice/social distance experience curated by Tiffany Matheson in response to a lack of viable access to art venues for physical artwork during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Immovable objects, Intractable forces, inevitable outcomes, and avoidable circumstances drive the creation of this piece. I do not trust anything that purports to have authority but does not author. We/I have authority precisely because we author, we invent, we challenge, we question, and we create therefore we have power. We/I will exercise this power, We/I will express our power, We/I will put false authority in check. This piece marks a place in space and time that is both indelible and perpetual. Wounds on our streets should be worn on the faces of our institutions. The ambition of this piece is to be this mark.
Treasure Hunt
Carroll County, GA red clay and minerals, found objects, gel medium, nylon ceramic fibers, wire mesh
24″ Hx 6″ W x 6″D
Growing up in Northwest Georgia, rarely a week passed that I wasn’t playing on my Pawpaw’s farm, rambling down dirt roads, and exploring decaying barns where we could find all sorts of treasure. Treasure Hunt encapsulates all the sensory elements that trigger memories of those gloriously, carefree days.
7172020
digital photography and moving image projected onto acrylic painting
9” x 12.5”
Throughout the beginning of the pandemic I began- like many in the world- to contemplate time in a very different way. My art practice prior to 2020 involved making through manipulation of materials and processes related to the forms created. With this new focus and fascination of complex interpretations of time I began by recording through both photography and videos to combine moments or sequences with objects to then create new documentations of time spent. This new way of both thinking and working is exciting for me, and allowing me to produce work that may never have happened without COVID-19 interruptions. My heart sinks thinking about everyone who has been directly affected by this pandemic and their time lost or time suffering. Drawing credit for this work is given to my soon to be four year old daughter, Teagan Wicker.
‘Covid-19 Constellations Maquette I’
Copper, Katrina Patina + Cast Iron
30” H x 30” W x 24”D
During the Coronavirus pandemic and after I had completed my teaching responsibilities, I set about to organize my studio coming across bits of treasured materials and odd castings, I began to play. During the quarantine, there were several celestial events including a super pink moon. These provided a cosmic distraction and I watched the night skies enjoying them so clear of air traffic that you could make out the constellations. The impetus for this new series of maquettes is to utilize the materials accumulated in my studio, eg the copper disc was cut from a large copper sheet that I had rescued from my New Orleans studio in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, the patina shows traces of the flood. These new works are a kind of testament to the extraordinary resilience of nature and perhaps in the midst of a new disaster we can heal and process the last one.
Searching for Strong and Mature
Bass wood, twigs and paint
14” x 3.5” x 2.5”
My work has always revolved around concerns of man’s impact on the natural world. On the first day of our city’s pandemic lock down my child was born. We have been living a distanced lifestyle and our daily adventures include walkabouts outside the house looking at plants, bugs, and potential tree limbs for swings and tree houses. My concerns have grown and are at the forefront of my thoughts because of the effect it will have on my son. I look at this work as a study/sketch documenting my hopes for his future.
Covid – 19 has offered all of us some challenges in making our work. Since I wasn’t allowed in the foundry this summer, I have turned to drawing for production during this summer of 2020. This work titled, Binary Mandala, is a forty foot circle, prayer mandala. The grass was skinned from the hillside and stones placed to form a binary system of numbers within the space. Works similar to this have been produced in other places, such as Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Indiana and Florida using heated brands to burn the grass in a pattern. Since New Mexico is sensitive to forest fires in the summer, the placement of stone instead of the brand seemed a logical solution.
All of my work incorporates something old with something new. In this series, a mandala form (ancient) has binary writing (new language) incorporated into the design.
Breathe
Cast iron, polyester organza, hair, wood
cast iron bellows 22” long, fabric wall hanging 5’ x 5’
I’ve lately taken on the process of embroidering, with all consideration to the feminine traditions that embraces, though, my process is not traditional. I want to share a human story: I use text and hair to do so. I think of these elements as traces left behind by those that once touched or occupied this space: whispers. In Breathe, I wanted to focus on the most essential, igniting, and polarizing word that could singularly tell the story of 2020. While the hair and fabric float off the wall, responsive to every movement of air that passes, the bellows remain completely futile. It is a story of contradictions.
Carrie Paige Wicker
Cast Iron
H 13″ x W 8″ x D 8″
During this time of quarantine, I was honored to be invited out to Pittsburg, PA to cast iron at Carrie Furnaces with my iron family. I wasn’t sure what I would cast, but I always know that the perfect piece will present itself to me. Its always a game of finding the hiding gem hiding in plain site and recognizing its potential to be immortalized in iron. My friend Paige Henry was giving me a tour of the area that she worked in and she had a Wicker vase that had been sitting around for a bit. This was my gem waiting to be transformed into iron by way of my Rolly-Mold technique.
Uzi
Cast Iron
14 1/2″ x 14 1/4″ X 7 3/4″
I am currently finishing work for my MFA thesis exhibition at Fort Hays State University. This piece was cast shortly before the coronavirus shutdown and finished out after studio restrictions were lifted. It is part of a larger body of work influenced by war, politics, and current reality.
Primitive 012
Iron and Steel
32.25 x 54 x 6 inches
Primitive 012 addresses a need to sculpturally connect to the complexity of awareness. The work has become a search for focus in a world of chaos and discomfort. The minimalist format is my desire for control. My work has three primary observational focal subjects. The focal point is an empty square centered in an iron structure. The structure, a rectangle, textured with simulated eroded like pits, is caged by welded diagonals of steel construction rebar. The environment, which surrounds, frames, the work becomes the third subject of the work. The inability to focus on all three simultaneously is the inspiration for the work. As a wanderer, my work is about meditation in the world around us. What I find comforting and sometimes distressing is the moment in which my focus is on “the between”, that simultaneous moment when perspectives change from one to the other and new ideas are revealed.
I Am Woman…
Cast Iron, Alabaster Marble & Soapstone, 2020
20″ x 7″ x 3″
Short statement about this work: I Am Woman… is based upon the Helen Reddy No. 1 Billboard Hit from December 1972 representing the strength (iron), and the stability (stone) of all women that is why the three dots follow, so each individual woman can put in what is her strength! I wanted to combine my expertise of stone carving with cast metals, in this case cast iron to showcase the beauty of separate media as one work of art.
Constrained Augmentation
Iron, Bronze, Steel, and Sisal Rope
25”x 20”x 18”
Growing up in the Midwest, I was always told to help your neighbor, especially if you are in a situation to do so. Being at home during quarantine and not being able to help ease the suffering around us, takes its toll. It weighed on me, even now. This work is an expression of what I have been feeling this year. A sense of helplessness, but having defiant surges of strength and growth within my life, and at the same time feeling guilty for having those successes. The rope in the work is overwhelming, almost completely engulfing the casting. It gives a sense of weight and struggle, while the casting is placed near the center filled with life and hope.
“Prescription”
“IV” stand, disposable facemasks, red iron oxide
72” x 18” x 16”
2020
My work “Prescription” is a chain of disposable facemasks stained with red iron oxide hanging from an “IV” stand mimicking blood bags or medicines. The facemasks are stained with iron oxide because it is the iron in our blood that makes it possible to move oxygen around our bodies, oxygen that we require to live. The work symbolizes the facemask as a medicine of sorts, as a preventative measure or an action to protect us from becoming ill or infecting others. This work also recognizes the politicization, by some, of the facemask as a symbol of oppression of individual liberties. It is this politicization that has made it difficult if not impossible to move “oxygen” around the body of our nation, to realize our potential as a society of people living together in a shared existence. Our increasing polarization is corroding the very fiber of our nation; the prescription we desperately need is for unity.
You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine
Fabric, objects, paper, thread, beads
28” Diameter
2020
Between the lockdown and George Floyd’s murder, I was deep in packing for a now delayed move. Locked out of my University, without access to my tools, or my pile of unfinished castings, I found refuge at home in my fabric studio. Sorting item by item through 20 years of domesticity and child rearing detritus became a daily meditation. Keep, donate, throw, keep, donate, throw. This series is filled with remnants, organized like a “Sampler”. They are moments captured, universal and personal. While in the rearview mirror of this pandemic, post Floyd’s murder world, they seem possibly trite and indulgent, to me they also serve as the reminder of the edge, the selvage of a bolt of fabric, where each thread in the weave comes back to start the next trip across, actively creating something new.
Sea Ice Extent was developed from ten years of daily data from a sea ice sensor outside of Nuvuk (Point Barrow) a headland on the Arctic coast outside of Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska. Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in Alaska, and is the northernmost point of the United States. It marks the limit between two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea to the east. Here, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This area is ground zero for climate change, and sea ice extent is an important indicator for this change. This artwork is cool and severe, a solemn totemic marker of what is to come.
Lost River
Watercolor, pastel, mix-media, pencil, collage on paper
27 x 24 inches
2020
Lost River is a work on paper begun at the end of 2019 and completed in July of 2020. Based on geologic maps of the gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, the drawing depicts the convergence of land, water, and strata. The map is a ground for the drawing in which abstract forms, both familiar and obscure, emerge. The foreground is dominated by a large square, and within the square are smaller, vibrantly-colored rectangles, representing the sites which actual oil rigs were used to drill oil from the Gulf of Mexico. The lost river begins in the ochre background, representative of the Gulf of Mexico, where it penetrates subterranean earth, twists around the oil rigs, and then ultimately disappears. Suggesting layers of land and water, penetrating the subterranean elements, Lost River reflects on the intersection between human activity and nature. In this case impacting the natural landscape and terrain of the lower Mississippi Basin which has resulted in detrimental land loss, ecological damage and extreme flooding.
This is just a fish. Not even a representation of an actual fish. Is it just a fish? I thought so…. This tiny little inconsequential fish is the only thing I’ve made during the pandemic. Things have been difficult, busy, more demanding than before. Swimming up stream, against the current it’s a struggle. I thought I’d just make a fish, a tiny little fish. Is it just a fish? It’s a fish out of water; it’s bones have been picked clean. This tiny, seemingly innocuous, inaccurate little fish, just a fish – is it just a fish?
#84, 41.6764N, 86.2520W. Cherry.
Cast Iron, Steel, Silicon Bronze, Gold Leaf.
12”x7”x7”
My abstractions are based in playful subversion of production methodologies; objects are produced by repetition of action paralleling mass-production. This repetition deliberately pursues deviation. Adaptation requires mutation; biological systems adapt, industrial systems- rigid and brittle- do not. I blend the evolutionary developments of biological systems with material expertise. Amber Scoon, theorist, states, “Form and the activities that create form are one thing.” My forms have become lineages with languages of mark and pattern. The coordinates, sites of creation, are maps of travel. The furnaces that produced the metal are named- identifying each object as a metallurgical sample of the artist-built machine that produced it. These forms and maps create a narrative of evolution of form and the activities that create form. I use a subtractive method in bonded sand. In this object, the mold waste was preserved after production of another object and re-purposed, creating a document of deterioration.
Sierva Maria
wood, polymer, cast iron
48” x 14” wall hanging
To be viewed under black light.
The sculpture is based on an image recounted on the opening page of “Of Love and Other Demons” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The surprise lay in the third niche of the high altar, on the side where the Gospels were kept. The stone shattered at the first blow of the pickax, and a stream of living hair the intense color of copper spilled out of the crypt. The foreman, with the help of the laborers, attempted to uncover all the hair, and the more of it they brought out, the longer and more abundant it seemed, until at last the final strands appeared still attached to the skull of a young girl. Nothing else remained in the niche except a few small scattered bones, and on the dressed stone eaten away by saltpeter only a given name with no surnames was legible: SIERVA MARÍA DE TODOS LOS ÁNGELES. Spread out on the floor, the splendid hair measured twenty-two meters, eleven centimeters. The impassive foreman explained that human hair grew a centimeter a month after death, and twenty-two meters seemed a good average for two hundred years. I, on the other hand, did not think it so trivial a matter, for when I was a boy my grandmother had told me the legend of a little twelve-year-old marquise with hair that trailed behind her like a bridal train, who had died of rabies caused by a dog bite and was venerated in the towns along the Caribbean coast for the many miracles she had performed.
Mysterious Paddler
Cast Iron, Tamahagane Steel, Stone, Fishskin, Wood, Copper Sulphate
8″ W x 8″ L x 10″ H
2020
Responsible Radius
One gallon of black latex paint, a piece of my grandmothers costume jewelry
12’ x 3’ x 3/8″
March 2020
I made this artwork during the shelter in place order with my intermediate jewelry class. The assignment, called From Home required that we use any materials we had on hand to make a piece that measured the physical distance of 6 feet. Up until recently – we didn’t think much about the distance between us. What is in the space that separates us? How can we visualize that space? How can we occupy or experience this space in a new way? Can we find new ways to make or prevent contact with one another? Can we be in contact without touching? Can what we create act as armor or protection from contact? Thinking of my own body as a host for the contagion and my anxiety about being asymptotic and unknowingly passing something that can be deadly to some…. This piece is about fear and the weight of shared responsibility.
Hypervigilance, fear of being watched, and the overpowering feeling of being out of control are symptoms of paranoia. And yet here we are in a place where fear and paranoia are the norm. Mistrust of the government, threats to our health, and the stress of polarization and isolation have driven us to the edge of sanity.
When I was 10, I was held at gunpoint by my step-grandmother, a religious zealot, and forced to listen to her preach The Book of Revelation. She was half blind with cataracts and had an utterly terrifying personality. She prophesied of end times, plague, domination of the populace, etc. She ranted about not being allowed to leave our homes or buy food without the mark of the beast on our bodies. She warned of the many-faced man that would take control of our country and bring about the end. I was transfixed and traumatized by her apocalyptic prophecy.
Surely, she was just insane.
Double Standard is an interactive visual pun, which uses imagery based on a 1978 Ford Ranger standard (manual) transmission truck to illustrate the way a double standard functions. As the viewer moves one gearshift, the second gearshift moves in tandem, in the same way a standard is applied to a person or group of people and the double standard that follows exempts others. The use of a pun is also intentional, as a pun assigns different meanings to the same or similar sounding word, just like a double standard assigns different expectations to the same or similar people. This piece invites the viewer to interact and consider the double standards that exist all across society.
Pine Box is a black, lidless coffin with a window to view the contents within. Built from maple and acrylic, it is filled with poplar shavings and contains no trace of pine. The coffin is a reliquary for the materials it houses– in this case, the wood shavings used as dunnage and nothing more. It’s a reflection of my work as a preparator and museum carpenter, an homage to obsolete packing materials and the traditional “crate” for human remains.
Pony Hammer IV: For James Vanderpool
Cast Iron, Found Frame, Fabric, Paint and Lacquer
24″ x 18″ x 4″
This piece is part of an ongoing series where I imbue girliness with functional utility. I made this as a gift to James Vanderpool for being one on my journey to empower me in my career. Past recipients include Heather Doyle, Brad Hertko and an anonymous donor.
From the series Mammalia
Novel Standard, is comprised of various objects collected as intriguing stand alone forms with the intent to incorporate them into a future work of art. What better time to create an assemblage then a pandemic with minimal shop access?!? This wall piece integrates old pedestal sink brackets, window weights (I can’t say no to a pulley!), and cast iron spills. See the beauty in the unique and once in a while dive into your hoard to make art.
I made the pattern for this piece while at a residency at Six Mile Sculpture Works in 2012. I cast the piece in 2014. The casting has been sitting in my shop for 6 years.
During quarantine I finally had the time to finish works that had been laying around. This piece now sits in the newly renovated patio at The Skillet in the “Bongwater Zen Money Garden” near other sculptures and, two koi fish, Jack and Amy.
Phoenix Savage
Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb
Mixed Media
Variable Dimensions
“Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb…” takes as its point of departure
the artwork of Elizabeth Catlett’s Mother and Child. Whereas Catlett is
celebrating the relationship between a mother and her child, “Blessed is the
Fruit of Thy Womb…” is a lament, a dirge, a long blues holler at the curve of a
turn row. The work is akin to both Michelangelo’s Pieta, the Western epitome
of a mother’s loss, and Chris Ofili’s No Woman, No Cry, with its reggae title
vanquishing a woman/mother’s pain. “Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb…”
marks a continued trajectory of death to the black/body, the child/body, the
saint/body, the no/body, the some/body, before Emmett Till and onward; upheld
by trees with deep roots, “…black/bodies swinging in the southern breeze….”
“Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb…” is a small gift of remembrance locked in a
shadow box of State-sanctioned dreams deferred.”
This piece was inspired by our current political situation. Our politicians are corrupt and we are all suckers for supporting them. There is an additional title to this piece “Dum Dum aka. Donald Trump” and “Tootsie Pop aka. Bill Clinton.” Shame on the Republican Party for electing Trump and Shame on the Democratic for not nominating viable candidates to defeat such a dipshit.
This work presents art as a universal “currency” which goes beyond borders, nationalities, crises.
A Place to Build
Cast Iron, Cast Concrete, Cast Aluminum, Steel, Plants
51” x 35” x 18”
A Place to Build is tied to the form of a table. As we build and develop, we are flanked with the consistent growth and decay of the universe. This sculpture is an abstraction of this silent and steady phenomenon that surrounds us as we build on our tables.
Looking back to a simpler time through the lens of a false narrative
Wish
Wood, cubic zirconia, steel, dirt, sand, coal, clay, bronze, concrete, and cedar shakes
4′ x 12′ x 12′
“Wish” is a sculptural work completed in March 2020. The work was created for a solo exhibition in the Kimura Gallery at UAA. The show never opened. The work was started in 2019 and finished in 2020. “Wish” was created in a year of struggles and I wanted to bring a little hope to those who felt like they needed it (including myself).
The work includes three main components. A circular roof made of reclaimed roofing cedar shakes, creating refuge; a pile of cast concrete wave breaks, to provide protection against erosive forces; and a wishbone resting precariously on top providing a glimmer of hope.
The wishbone itself is made from laminated 2×2’s, cubic zirconia, steel, dirt, sand, coal, clay, and bronze. The feet of the wish bone emulating a core samples from earth and the top inlayed with cubic zirconia touching upon the sky, glittering like stars.
Durant Thompson
Wood Bowls with Brass Inlay
Black Cherry, Ambrosia Maple, Brass, African Blackwood
various sizes
In 2013, I started working with my uncle as an apprentice to Bill Jones Woodturning in Juno Beach, FL. Over the last few years I have been working with him to absorb his 25+years of woodturning knowledge. Being primarily a fabricator and castor in my adult life, this new wood process was pursued while recovering from a back injury, but also allowed me to focus on the circular forms that I have been interested in for many years. While this adventure was not intended to be long term, it turns out that the process of turning uses similar muscles to that of metal grinding and allows for a certain “Zen” while creating. These three examples depict the natural edge and inlay processes. I tend to choose pieces of wood with imperfections and history, not unlike my metal sculptures. Soon, I will be combining this new process with my metal works for a new body of assemblage works.
Not all castles are made of sand…but it sure seems like it these days.
This owl stein is ridiculous and impractical. It’s something that combines form, function and creativity. It’s an object, during very serious times, that only makes you laugh at the heavy weight and quirky function. Sometimes as an artist, I just want to make someone laugh and leave the heavy concept at the door. We need to be contemplative about our environment, yet also sit back, have a beer and see the absurdity of our situation.
When the Pandemic initially hit and schools began to close down, I lost all access to the facilities at my place of work (University of Southern Mississippi). This has been the longest time I have gone without access to a welding/metal shop since I was 16 years old (17 years ago!). Needless to say, I felt lost with my creative energy. It was difficult to think past all the metal casting projects I wanted to work on, the iron pours I was supposed to be traveling to, and the art I wanted to be making. Eventually though the need to create overpowered my feelings of sorrow, and inspiration returned to me. I have always had a deep love for construction equipment, particularly heavy machinery, so when local road work began in my neighborhood I got plenty of time to watch the equipment at work. Seeing these machines and how well engineered they are, inspired me to create my own 1:11 models out of Matboard.
follow follow helmet mask is part of a series of helmet masks. This one in particular borrows the title from the song, Mr. Follow Follow, by the Afropop musician Fela Kuti. The song describes mindless and oppressive police and military forces who follow orders without question. The form of the mask also echoes that of a KKK hood. My work employs comparative history and the conflation of visual language from a variety of sources to suggest new meanings. In this case combining the influence of traditional African wood carving with digital low poly 3D modeling to suggest a past, present and future context.
The ticky-tacky objects in the House Hole series are cast from models and molds of domestic architecture. Initial patterns are fabricated in wood or 3D printed, then molded in rubber. These positive and negative forms then become the patterns themselves for cast metal or urethane foam, reversing each image in the finished object. The forms say home and vibrant memories with saturated colors and experiences that molded us.
They seem to exist as sculptural memories of childhood and play, backyards and basements, neighborhoods and cul-de-sacs.
The images show a granite sculpture I carved from Colorado rose granite. The work is currently untitled. I based it off some ancient Egyptian forms I saw. My works often relate to anthropological studies. The interconnection of sculpture materials with my ultimate respect for human history provide the resultant form and content.
Everything is happening. you are haunted by demands made upon you from the past, needs of the present, and dreams and fears for the future. You might find some solace in Buddhist thought. Within this structure there is an observation that is simultaneously correct and incorrect. We all are only here in this moment, but to give no thought to the next is to give advantage to those on the wheel of desire. many of these inhabitants will gladly reduce us to ghosts.