In The Making

Book Medals

2011-08-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

I made these this summer.

The inscription reads, " If I were a machine, music would be my fuel, and art my exhaust. What would my purpose be you ask? Well put simply, it would be [XXXXXXXXXXXXX]!"

Later, I changed the last sentance to say " Well put simply, to change the world!"

This is my favorite lately. The inscription reads,

" Late in October I hear the sweet evening

sounds impressed upon the sky. Each melodious

note a star.

Missoula Montana

2011-08-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

The city of Missoula Montana

Driving through a storm somewhere in Montana

The sky just opened up, like in classical paintings. I was half expecting the hand of some one's god to reach down.

I figured out why they call this place "Big Sky Country"

Have I mentioned my appreciation for the aesthetics of power lines?

This is actually Wyoming, i think.

At the end of last semester, a good friend of mine and I decided to go on a road trip, Literally, to "get away" from the awesome intensity of grad psych school. We had a lot of fun. We slept on couches, ate peanut butter and jelly, and went exploring. We did absolutely nothing serious at all. We went to a beer festival, a farmers market, "climbed the M" ( a touristy hike up to a GIANT "M" on the side of the mountain) participated in a flash mob advocating public transportation, and went drinking at a bar where we were by far the youngest people (by about 20 years) and the 60-something year old female bar tenders with raspy voices gave us funny looks when my friend tried to order a mixed drink instead of a shot or a pitcher. It was marvelous.

THE Container Project.

2011-05-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

My container is finished! What the f is that you say? Explanation: In an art therapy class, I was asked to think of an issue I would like to work on. Then I was asked to think of a symbol that represents the issue and build a container of some sort. The container was to be a metaphor for therapy. I was then supposed to work on my issue through art and symbolism (staying in the metaphor) and create seven pieces that represented the stages of the therapeutic process AND they had to fit into the “container”. Here is my semester long exploration of my issues through art. This is REALLY personal, so I’m going to be a little vague. (Yes, it is possible to be vaguer then I usually am.)

This suitcase is entirely handmade. I built the frame out of masonite, carved the handle and feet, dyed the fabric orange and added the necessary hardware (D rings, hinges and snaps). I even brush painted the burlap and hand embroidered the flowers.

In the middle of this field there is a pocket on the side of a hill. This secret compartment containes the rest of the pieces of this project

Here is what's inside!

{... click clack click are you following me? ...}

This is stage one: Identifying the issue. There is a quite in depth exploration on the reverse of this comic strip.

This is another little book with a slightly different format. Its about changing your (my) perspective on the issue. it folds into a cube and/or folds flat into a wallet looking book. This is what went with it:

I close my eyes. There is a slam of a car door. I open my eyes and I am in my mom’s car. Oldies, doo-wop, slowly become more and more audible. I look over and my mom is younger with her hair blowing in the wind of the open windows. I become aware of where we are. We are driving through an endless field of dandelions. I am happy. Content. I look behind me, my sister is in the back seat. I smile. Behind her, through the back windshield, more of the endless dandelion field.

This series of pieces was a very personal journey through a tangle of childhood trauma. This is about residual feelings, thoughts and a lens through which I saw the world that no longer served me but still had a huge impact. I didn’t mean for it to reach such depth, i didn’t even know what exactly it was at first. It just started with noticing a yellow Dandelion as a reoccurring theme in my life. Through this art making and meditative exploration of my "stuff" I watched the tiny, innocent, youthful yellow flower transition into a tall, large, mature white ball of softness. The flower didn’t go away, they never do, It just turned into something else. Someday, I hope to see the white fluff blow away in the wind.

So, when I started, the symbol was obvious, but deciphering what the issue truly was, was very difficult. I had to redo the first couple of steps several times and then the last couple of steps ended up being alterations to the first. So…there are not quite seven complete pieces, yet there are "leftovers". In the end, there was one giant sculpture-the transforming suitcase, three non-sequential paintings that I later realized fit together, two books, and a pile of letters and crayon drawings. Also, I got a tattoo during this process and when this project was all over, I did yet another painting that felt like part of it.

{It's hard to see in this photo of the oil painting, but there are dandelions in the background and a new symbol has emerged. The Cardinal...}

{My arm}

To be continued.

Travel Journal

2011-05-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

{I go with the wind:) }

This is a book I started when I was accepted to grad school in Colorado. Moving halfway across the country was big for me, so I intended this to be a journal about the transition. It started when I was called for an interview; It came to the interview with me and explored the school and city of boulder. Then drove cross country and started school with me when I was accepted. It’s been one year and it’s still in progress. Here are some of my favorite pages so far.

{This is a song my mother used to sing to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=porOx00eXLg }

{This last page reads: "This is what it all comes back to." P.s. I am not working on the pages in order. It is no where near being done.}

Moving to Colorado summer 2010

2011-03-07T16:43:00.000-08:00

So, I drove from Philadelphia PA to Boulder CO. It took about three days. It was a whole lot of not much to see. These are the only photos I took that I thought were interesting enough to post. I like them mostly because they portray how weird and eerie this trip was. My mom kept talking about horror movies like Children of The Corn and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and so wouldn’t get off the highway to see any of the bizarre attractions advertised on the billboards or in my weird America book.

Talk about compensation.

I swear you dont want to let that mist stuff get close to you. (Too many bad SiFi movies for me!)

My mom wouldnt even stop at night, I look photos the whole time to stay awake. This Mac truck almost hit us and then flew by!

I know, only city kids take photos of things like GIANT ROLLS OF HAY! (YEY)

I love this photo because its the embodiment of ceepy oldness. It reminds me of 1800's photos I've seen.

Waxes from forever ago!

2011-01-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

The waxes I promised in the May 29th 2009 entry... Still incomplete…

Despite his dystrophy, his imagination would not atrophy. This is my favorite out of this bunch. It’s the most positive and it was fun to make. I have a lot of fond memories of the boy this piece is about. When I met him, he walked with leg braces. As time went on crutches were added, and then a manual wheelchair for when he was too tired. The last time I saw him, he was in a power chair full time. Always, despite this gradual decline, he was creative, playful and hopeful. He was Godzilla to imagined cities, we watched piranha fights in the pool, and we told jokes all the time.

He lies with his eyes but his smile always tells the truth.

This is about a man I worked with who had

quadriplegia and used his eyes to signal yes and no to asked questions. After working with him for some time, I realized that he often lied when he was tired of being misunderstood or felt like he was being a burden. Smiling however is an interesting function. He cannot control his mouth to eat or speak but smiling is an involuntary action. I made it my goal to make him laugh and smile as many times possible during our time together.

They had to sew his face back on; He can’t stop drawing yellow buses;

I made this after working with a very small boy who had been hit, along with his brother, by a school bus while riding on the handle bars of a bicycle. He was basically catatonic for weeks after the accident, until an art therapist brought him art supplies. I never heard him speak, but the in depth drawings of the grill of a yellow bus were such strong images I often left the sessions almost in tears. The art really helped to start bringing him back to a functioning state. I think I made this piece mostly for myself to try to cope with the hugely powerful intensity of the situation. Thanks to shitty health care policies, he was discharged as soon as he could walk again. I wonder about him sometimes.

A Safe Place

2010-10-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I made at the beginning of spring. It's based on a piece I made a couple years ago in undergrad during an art therapy class experiential. We did an exercise exploring a setting or place we felt most safe. This is a reoccurring image in my personal art although it mostly manifests in childish crayon drawings and watercolors. I decided to bring it into a slightly more 3d world. I am currently working on a much bigger project that also has to do with this image. (I'll post that later.) I love this form of this image because so far it is the closest to an accurate representation. It fits in my pocket, I can carry it around always, as I already do. It's 2.5x3" closed. the fabric is greener in person, but I like this photo because of how the yellow pops.

Well Hello Again!!

2010-08-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

So, It's been a little over a year since my last post! (insert typical life interruption story here!) I'm hoping to start updating this blog about once a week again! (Did i ever really do that in the first place?) So I have not been wholly unproductive in the last year! Ive been in two shows in Manhattan-which i forgot to post and actually publicize at all...but people still showed! You can view the gallery website directly at http://www.medialiagallery.com/ ....but my photos are better..

Instead of a massive dump of info and images I'm gonna spend my next couple of posts spreading stuff out in a hopefully more organized and interesting manner!

Enough with the boring stuff though!

This is a piece I made at the beginning of the summer. It's only a couple of inches tall, and maybe six inches long when open. It doesn't fold flat because one side is kinda three-d. The three-d side is the more personal side, it's quite literally a map of my life... I think you have to click on the third image to really see it.The outside is kind of an abstraction of my inside, which if you turn in various directions or squint really hard looks like different things in my life. or just a pretty abstraction.. And so if you think about it, this thing is inside out. I know there are so many things you could probably deduce about me from this, ha.

Anyway, its found wood that I wood-burned, oiled, and added thread to. The thread also makes the hinges and clasp+some found brass screws.

TREES!

2009-07-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

So, after my computer gave me a lovely present, the "blue screen of death", and best buy took a chunk of my soul(not that my soul is by any means chunky), a valiant effort to save my life was made and ..tadaaah! I'm back! complete with photos that i had feared were lost forever. Trees. These are pieces that are in NY and i will probably never see again. NY tends to eat my work. They go in, and (insert various scenario here).
I know I've talked about Medallia before but I cannot stress how much I love to make it. These are all three palm sized things that i hope will end up in someones pocket(is that one of the scenarios?) instead of stuck on a shelf in a gallery or boxed up in my basement. The first is a thick piece of glass etched on the back( those words were so hard to write backwards). It says "help me help." It might seem pretty upfront but it means more then just face value to me. I think I'm going to make more things out of glass.

The second here is a medal i made for my dad. we don't have the best relationship ever but its not terrible. its gotten better since i moved away. Its kind of a tribute to one of the only things we ever did together, just the two of us, that didn't result in fighting...Watching lightning storms. No matter what mood, what time, day or night.. we'd hear the thunder and both end up on the front porch.
The porch had long before we moved in been a wooden deck with a roof. then it had been closed off with huge storm windows. it was kind of an eye sore on the front of the house. no one ever used it for anything. At some point in my childhood a lazyboy had been shoved out there,( i think it was an effort to compromise, it was my dad's fave and my mom hated it cus is didn't match anything and was stained.) My sister hates storms, and my mom sleeps through them. We had a lot of quiet, not being angry time out there. the reverse of this medal says, "the lightning shows me the pines poking holes in the sky, I count till the boom sets off car alarms, then smile" If you look carefully you can see my moms house and car.

The photo to the right is a detail of a piece. it was hard to sneak out of the glass case at my opening and photograph before the curator saw. so this is all you get. It's two pieces of wood sewn very badly back together. the reverse says, "I'm trying". I've started referring to the as "Together again". I think these are my favorite pieces that ive made recently. I'm still working on the ones that i made the molds for. it...sigh...didnt work out so well. they just dont want to cast whole. If I cant get them done soon, ill at least post photos of the waxes.
p.s. the first and third are as usual recycled materials. the bronze in between is one of a kind. they are all about palm sized. the bronze is about the size of a silver dollar.
As always, if you want something ive made, to cherish and to hold, till..you lose it or give it away.. let me know.

Medallia

2009-05-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy making Medallia. I love making things that are small and can be carried in a pocket or purse. especially when they're wrapped in a kerchief for safe keeping. I guess its the old fashioned part of me; the part that loves writing letters, giving gifts to people for no particular reason, and old movies where the farewell scenes take way to long and include lots of intense stares.

I like the idea of important things that fit in the palm of your hand. not that i think the things i make are important.

I only have one more day to finish up for the upcoming show. I'm no where near being done....I did finish a couple more things though, so here they are! P.s. come to my show if your in NY on friday the 6th, free food, drinks, good people, and o yea, art.

Candlewood Lake

2009-05-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

I got a lot of work done today! patinas! molds! photos! i even had time to make a mess!... o yea and i finnished this! I'ts Candlewood Lake, a large man made lake that is so large they had to flood three towns to make it. If you go scuba diving you can walk the streets and sit in ford model-ts if you want. There are lots of sad stories that go along with this, but good ones to. we now get tons of electricity generated by this lake. so i guess its a good thing...

2009-05-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

I'm up early this morning, A little stressed but mostly excited about the upcomming show! I'll probably post photos later but here are some photos my friend Ashley Smith took of me for a project of hers. they should hold you over for a while

2009-05-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hey! I have a show soon!!! here are a couple photos of some stuff that will be in it. I'm kinda keeping in line with the series i started a while back about pollution and environmental awareness, and I've started a new series about people I've worked with in the Human Services field. And as always, there are some things i just needed to make...

2009-01-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

FUTURE SITE OF LANDFILL

Go to my show at the Plastic Club on Camac St in center city. Or just look at these. Bet you cant guess what these are about.

2008-11-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

Medallia!!!

Recently I was commissioned to make the commemorative medal for the annual New Ideas In Medallic Sculpture exhibition. It was a great honor to be asked to make something like that. I’ve been in the show a couple times, its lots of fun and great talent to go see. So after months of planning, preparation, and hard work, including recovering my work when the foundry I pour in burnt down the day of my pour, the US Postal Service lost thirteen of my medals(maybe not meant to be eh?) The show goes on and is up right now with only the first medal of the batch I made. I’m working on making more, hoping the others are found. But I just got the pictures of the medals so enjoy

Medallia is usually round, two sided and bronze since it originated from coin makers. With a title like New Ideas I decided to go squar, six sided. and aluminum. I would have loved to get more intricate but I had to make multiple identical medals and I’d never made an edition that big. I’ve been on this whole scientific kick for a while now so I decided to stick with that for this show. I milled a small block of wood with a lovely knot hole and hammered in small nails in the pattern that out galaxy makes, a pinwheel. I then sandblasted the grain out a little and wood burned “New Ideas In Medallic Sculpture 2008~2009 and my signature on the four short sides. Then just mold, cast (15 times), sprue, slurry, pour, chase, patina and tada The universe and a black hole

2008-10-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

Hey! I have a show on Nov. 1st at Rack and Hamper gallery aka Medialia in NYC. I have three pieces in the show which will be going on tour (Madrid, Lisbon, Philly and NYC) along with the commemorative medal for the show!! donate $150 to help the gallery and show and you get one of my little medals!

2008-08-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

P.S by the way...There will be a show at the Aphrodite Gallery which is upstairs from Passional on 5th and Bainbridge, in december and i will be showing things ive made out of the broken things that Passional has rejected. It should be awsome. come.

New pictures!

2008-08-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hey! I've been real busy lately, working, building, getting into trouble, you know, the usual. I've also been documenting, so....tada! pictures.

This first one is of my sister with glow stick glasses. It was a really long exposure, the longest i can do without a tripod. Have I mentioned that I love night photography? Its at a campground in Mass this past 4th of July.

Anyway this one below is this weird place i found in NOLA. I think it was some recreation of a tradeing post or something but its obviously fake and abandoned. I was excited about it. especially the colors.
OH OH OH this is one of the new Photos of Fishing for Answers. Its still hard to photograph even with the new lense. But i think you can kinda tell its a person now so yey. maybe i should not make things half an inch anymore......nah.

This is medalia i just made for a show in Manhatten. so both below and above fit in your hand. above is thread and aluminium, abstract and below is glass, lead, zink, steel, asitate and enamel. Its a glass book with plastic pages and a bookmark. the glass is fused together on the cloud bookmark end and it has hinges. this one, although bigger then a lot of myself was also really hard to photpgraph...cus its see through...
The last three pieces are not mine for the next year while on tour but I'm still selling prints, of the sculpture and photographs so let me know ifya want one. I'll post more info about the show when i get it. I do know its in NY though at Rack and Hamper Gallery, Medialia : .)

News!

2008-06-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hey! I got three things for you this time! The first, a show(!) at 1523 N. Hancock St. Philadelphia PA, 19122. Its outdoors and there will be music, art and a good time. it starts at 5pm on June 28th. All are welcome. I like meeting new people so come! The second thing....I'm gonna put lots of randome pictures up by request! I like taking them of stuff i make and interesting things and sometimes i get carried away so here are some that i like. Oh and i got a new lense for my camera so im gonna put up new ones of fishing for answers because you cant really tell what it is in that picture....and...the third thing was....Oh new stuff that i made, i didnt print the pictures yet but i will soon. I swear.

Ok, so last year I went to Florida, to the everglades.

And to New York, NY, to Coney Island. They're gonna rip it down. I'm sad.

This was on the way home from Coney Island. Its New Jersey...

This is last christmas.....

And this is what happens when im left alone with my camera. I call them my Plastic Bags...

Pictures!

2008-04-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

Here are the photos from my show, as promised. The show went very well. If you came, Thanks! If not, maybe next time. I was also asked if my stuff was for sale, and I think it depends on which piece. So just ask!

This is a picture of the whole sculpture that the little boat detail I showed before is part of. In total, it's about 3 1/2 feet tall.

I tittled this one "How to explain Quantum Theory in one word: Boo" This one was pretty hit or miss. It's a Boo from Nintendo's Mario. Either you were part of that generation or you weren't. The sculpture makes a couple references to Quantum Theory but the most important was that the boo knows when you're looking at him. Where the post attaches to the wooden block is a tiny knot hole and the wood grain makes it look like the post is making ripples in the surface. This is kind of a funny little piece but i couldn't get over the metaphor. If you wanna know more about the science part I suggest you tube's Dr. Quantum explains Double slit experiment.
P.S. This piece is only four inches tall and is cast sterling silver and walnut.

This is called "String Theory as supported by M Theory" It has a scientific background but I'm hoping that even if you're not a scientist, you can still enjoy it. Below are details of the String Theory table and M Theory rug. Together they are about 4 feet across and 2 1/2 tall. Its made of thread and styrofoam packing peanuts.

from afar
The outside
Inside

This piece is called Space. It's made of things I pulled out of a dumpster at the site of a demolished house (my old apartment). I didn't measure it but it's taller then me and I'm 5'3"

One side
The other side
From below

This is "Fishing For Answers" It's probably my favorite of these. I think it sums up this series pretty well. Its kind of hard to make out here. It doesn't photograph well. It's about 3 inches and the people (yes those are people) are half inch. They are both sitting and (ice?) fishing through a hole but it turns out that the line connected to their poles is one. I was thinking about parallel realities and such.

Art Show...?

2008-04-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I just had an art show and I'm so not used to having this blog and was so overwhelmd that i forgot to make a post about it! (oops?) If youre in philly and youre interested, its up for a couple more days. The show is at 333 S. Broad St. center city Philadelphia. 6th floor. It's short notice so if you cant make it its ok. Ill remember to post my next show ahead of time. and also, I should have pictures of the work that's in the show up soon. Have a nice day!

A Blog!

2008-03-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my first blog! Although I would like to keep it limited to sculpture, this will most likely consist of a cross section of everything I make. I’m gonna start with a back log of things I made not so long ago, just as a starting point for me and for those of you that are curious...like me.

I called this Culture. I made it about a year ago for a show in south Philly. It was an installation but got mostly destroyed during the uninstalling. It's wax and plaster and took up about a six foot by four foot space on the floor and crept up the wall that was six feet wide and twelveish high.

I made this about a two months ago, It's titled time. It's wood, steel and rubble from my old house that got torn down. It's about five by six by four inches but it's mounted on a four and a half foot steel rod. I used entirely discarded material.

This is an oldie. It's stone and plywood. I also built this one from discarded material.

I Hope this is a good preview of what's to come. I'll add more as soon as i can find and/or take photos. Feel free to leave me comments, I love to talk.