Artist Statement
Using clay as a drawing material, my ceramic wall sculptures are a psychedelic concoction of lived and imagined experiences that ponder the power of personal stories. As social and political tensions continue to build in the world, there seems to be little room for compromise as we all become more identified with our own story of how things should be. Through exploring narrative, my work seeks to look beyond the story in order to find the space where relationships can evolve.
The content and process of my studio work is informed by my life with my five year-old daughter, Franny and wife, Athena. My work explores themes of masculinity, discovery of self, sexuality, and family, and all the nuanced guilt, confusion, and elation that exist in tandem. Being a father, I am in the midst of one of the most significant transitions of my life, and my work expresses the complexity of the patriarchal, nuclear family system I find myself in, as well as the tenderness and energy I receive through my family. Along with relics found in my own domestic environment, depictions of imaginary animals in museum collections, art books and folklore have become the ideal actors in this drama.
I have recently been making iterations of the mythological creature MothMan enchanted with nature, invoking the healing of the earth. Popularized in the 1960s in West Virginia Folklore, MothMan was thought to be a harbinger of doom, and is mostly cited as an antagonistic, violent creature. I am curious about subverting this narrative, utilizing this character as a surrogate to contemporary male/father archetypes. The MothMan in my ceramic sculpture is a clumsy, genuine creature, intent on finding balance with nature through various rituals for healing.
