Since the first humans put their artistic expressions on the walls of caves, symbology and the enigmatic representations of the natural world have been ingrained in our artwork. Today, as we are constantly exposed to the never ending stream of technology and its seepage into every facet of our lives, I am confronted with how to digest this paradigm shift in human society. Society has become obsessed with consumerism at the cost of filling landfills with the remnants of our lives as one technology constantly replaces another. It is my intent to filter through these discarded and beautiful remnants of this artificially fabricated society to find the cast off items that should be reincarnated into the discussion revolving around man’s interaction with nature. Metal gives a stable yet challenging medium for discussing this reality and metal can be reborn in a shower of heat and force. I create my work through adding these lost bits of treasure together in layers until their life and purpose has been realized; conjured out of the deep recesses of the sub-consciousness. Further, arcane remnants of religious icons and tribal symbology quickly emerge in these works conjuring distant reminders of our shared past and the attempts to explain the unknown.
Nature is the essence that is most often overlooked in our contemporary society, giving me the reason to include it in my artwork and the conversation of creation. Though I primarily choose to sculpt nature’s argument out of metal, I will also allow other materials to impact the end result of my work. Wood, clay, plaster, and the discarded trash of a consumerist, industrialized civilization all have a voice about humanity’s effects on nature. Each various material lends a particular influence to the work enriching the whole by its presence in the sculpture. Often this leads to intrinsic forms that are found in nature being composed out of industrial waste. Thus the work created, often exceeds the size and reality of its natural counterpart. Not only does this force the viewer to recognize the perverse reality of society’s waste but to confront this reality in graphic detail. “Praying with Fire” a man-sized praying mantis does this by being an imposing insect with the endearing qualities of Frankenstein’s “monster” that shoots fire from its gaping maw. The piece is a patch work of assembled of gears, wire mesh, and numerous discarded post consumerism objects coalesced into the form of a majestic insect. The piece is both a glorification of our natural world and a condemnation of those who would destroy it.
T.C.
Nature is the essence that is most often overlooked in our contemporary society, giving me the reason to include it in my artwork and the conversation of creation. Though I primarily choose to sculpt nature’s argument out of metal, I will also allow other materials to impact the end result of my work. Wood, clay, plaster, and the discarded trash of a consumerist, industrialized civilization all have a voice about humanity’s effects on nature. Each various material lends a particular influence to the work enriching the whole by its presence in the sculpture. Often this leads to intrinsic forms that are found in nature being composed out of industrial waste. Thus the work created, often exceeds the size and reality of its natural counterpart. Not only does this force the viewer to recognize the perverse reality of society’s waste but to confront this reality in graphic detail. “Praying with Fire” a man-sized praying mantis does this by being an imposing insect with the endearing qualities of Frankenstein’s “monster” that shoots fire from its gaping maw. The piece is a patch work of assembled of gears, wire mesh, and numerous discarded post consumerism objects coalesced into the form of a majestic insect. The piece is both a glorification of our natural world and a condemnation of those who would destroy it.
T.C.
