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Description
I have more questions than answers. If I stop asking questions, then I have given up. Art has always been elusive for me. Art is quickly and constantly changing. My goal is to engage the viewer by different means other than purely visual. Aesthetics should be part of a visual dialog. If what I make is not visually interesting, I have already failed. Dave Hickey once said, "I wasn't born cool, I became cool." For me, cool is something that not everybody understands. It represents an interpretation of what a certain group, large or small considers pleasing. Often when something becomes too cool for the general public, it is no longer cool for the group. This requires a change to find something new. Art is like this for me. I look for objects that are visually "cool" and put them together to create a functional object that does something unexpected. I look at ordinary, everyday, mechanical objects and see how I can involve them in a new role. The use of other senses is as important as the visual. Incorporating all the senses helps inform what is actually happening with my work. This body of work pointed me in a slightly new direction by requiring me to take myself a little less seriously. Every new piece takes me a step closer to understanding why I do what I do. I remember being a child and having a vivid imagination. I was not able to act on a lot of the dreams I had, until now. I often feel like a child in an adult body. I always tinkered in my father's garage, but I was limited to whatever was there. Now I can collect my own things and create some of the objects I remember dreaming about. I can see children wanting to fling pancake batter onto a griddle on the wall, or drilling a hole in their bedroom wall to see what is behind it. The cause and effect of these pieces allows my childhood memories to flourish, while at the same time creating something "cool" to look at and to have something interesting to think about. I hope the viewer feels as inspired as I do.
