Statement

For the past 15 years, the content of my work has journeyed along a spectrum, with the natural world at one end, and the structures and imprints of human labors on the other. Initially, this trajectory developed as I mined the labor histories of my family, in particular my mother’s career as a horticulturalist and botanical illustrator, and my father’s multifaceted pursuits as an agricultural extension agent, iron foundryman, builder, furniture maker and freight train engineer. In my work, I combine re-drawings of my mother’s drawings in charcoal and graphite, materials like wooden pallets and aluminum ductwork culled from my father’s experiences, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional renderings of functional architecture from my Michigan upbringing, like transmission towers, henhouses and greenhouses.

However, incorporating my parents’ stories and influences is only scratching the surface of what motivates me; the most profound impact of my upbringing is having been ingrained with a way of looking, noticing, choosing, picking and engaging –the behaviors and values that determine my tastes and point of view. While in the Midwest, I draw from what’s close to myself and my family, and when I’m elsewhere, my work centers around my impressions of my physical surroundings, both extraordinary and mundane, as if taking notes to relay to folks back home. Together, my bodies of work from vastly different landscapes are like informal catalogs or subjective records of a particular place and time, as determined by my inherited penchants and values.