Artist Statement

The heart of my work has always been centered on the human condition and, more specifically, my own condition. As viewers, we can identify with what it means to be human and the everyday chaos that comes with our daily lives. The creation process is a source of therapy. Through this process of making and self-discovery, I try to connect with the frustration, amusement, disgust, happiness, and pain that I feel internally and that is present in our society/popular culture. I use the human form while also substituting such objects as dolls, tools, furniture, and toys to make a medley with which the viewer can engage. Such issues as innocence, mortality, and the potency of humanity are constant filaments within my design process. My work can be very dark and surreal. I am greatly influenced by the California Funk Art Movement which was anti-establishment and reacted to non-objective art in the 1960s. Funk artists took everyday objects and placed them in irrational arrangements as a protest to the slick forms of the abstract movement. That absurdity has also carried over into my work which tends to have a whimsical playfulness to it's composition.

RRB

(photo: Fair Featherd Friend)