This summer has been filled with making a lot of new work.  I am excited for the direction the work is taking and where it will continue to go.  These are some prints made last night for this years Renegade Craft Fair here in Chicago, September 6th and 7th.  If you are in the area please stop by and visit.   More information will be posted closer to the Fair.

Works composed of glass, plexiglass, string, silicone, and metal.  


I think of the current pieces as if I were drawing with material, placing and rearranging.  Adjusting the lights to reveal a shift in shadow and reflection. The title that comes to mind is wall sculptures.  What is painting?  What is sculpture?  There lies an interest in pushing the idea of both. I feel as though these inquisitive insights to space and architecture drive me to establish a composition on a 2-dimentional level as well as create an existence for material on a sculptural level.    
How does the subtlety of one thing amplify another?  The shifting occurrence of light allows for the reflective and translucent qualities of the material to take on multiple iterations of a particular mark.  Does the material consume light or reflect it back?  Does a thread line bare more weight than that of a paint line?

The nature of this glass work started just about two years ago right before my BFA show.  I have not been able to give my full attention to this work over the past years, though there has become a steady consistency of new iterations of these works since my residency at Lillstreet.  Articulating the work...  There is a sense of how i place the panels of glass and their position to the wall.  How do the lean on or up against?  The act of painting or placing the sting around the glass are decisions that are made in response to the panes of glass themselves, yes, but more importantly how these marks respond and cast themselves on to the wall.  the relationship of them or the threshold between them?  Like the threshold of the interior and exterior of a glass door?  

Okay.. so where to start.  Here is a collection of images that have been on my mind and have sparked new things in the studio.  The first four images are pieces that I recently made.  New in the sense that they were created a week ago, but not so much new to the conscious thought.  ah.. the conscious and unconscious.  This will make sense in a minute.  The rest of the images are picture that I shot while traveling in France, (oh god a year and half ago)  Taking these images spoke to me on many levels.  There is a sense of meaning and purpose to the window displays or shutter compositions on the buildings.  Fragments of something larger.  Essentially well balanced machetes.  I have been so curious in my own work about line shape and composition.  An ongoing study within all the work I make.  I am intrigued by the placement or rather displacement of something we might be looking at.  To create a surface of some kind, there are many elements that factor in.  Reacting and responding, intuitive and deliberate, conscious and unconscious, preparedness and damn right just owning the marks you make.  Those marks might not be exactly what you looking for, but the only way to search them out is to own them without any trepidation.  Easier said than done right? 

Material, light and shadow are some of the key elements that are so beautiful in these photos.  The strength that a casted shadow line holds over the naturally made water lines along the brick.  This enters into depth and building upon each of the surfaces. The interaction among the different materials allows for a combination of different line qualities. (soft, hard, bold, thin).  Does the material consume light or reflect it back?  I like the play of both.  

The works that I recently made are in response to and came to fruition from these photographs.  Now that I'm writing this, the imagery on my ceramic work all stems from this trip as well.   

My first few days in chicago were spent riding my bike around the city and exploring.  I stumbled upon this industrial site/company the other day and was intrigued with what I saw.  A. Finkl & Sons is the name of the company and they produce die steels, plastic mold steels, die casting tool steels and open-die forgings.  These large forms are then sold off to other manufactures in 18 different counties.  100% of their products are manufactured here in Chicago.
While taking photos I chatted with the security guard, whom informed be how the company started.  In 1879 German immigrant Anton Finkl founded the company for his development of a  new kind of chisel that could help separate and clean bricks that had been destroyed in the Chicago fire.  The history of this company the forms they produce were of great inspiration.