rasthree: Being in Order, Winter Art Show, Burlington, VT

I have just finished displaying my first public show shown in Burlington, VT during November and December. I displayed ten pieces total, eight of them being brand new pieces created particularly for this show. I am posting the show as one would have walked through the space with a brief summery as well. Click on the photos to enlarge the image. The following statement was on display and summarizes my thoughts and processes for the pieces:

"I enjoy deconstructing things to be able to discover how mechanized equipment comes together for a final purpose. I find myself doing the same, not only with physical objects, but even with systems, social life, class order, and gender roles. It becomes mesmerizing what we can accomplish and maintain as humans. Our life is compiled with objects and techniques built atop of each other; these things we so depend on aid our own lives and become ideas that please us.


As I briskly move through my life I am always drawn to ornate aesthetics: shiny things, gears, and curves. Sometimes I find these walking along architecture, pointing a camera lens, or perusing thrift stores. Once I have found a few things, I throw them in a box only to rediscover them later and eventually tug, pry, unscrew and sometimes break. As I ponder over these items in my hands I begin to re-imagine various pieces together and on display thus forcing these inanimate objects to speak differently to one other, to create an idea together. I invite the viewer to visually poke through the art, begin to work and wonder at relationships, piece together stories, begin theories, and be visually intrigued"


Memorial to the Lost Indigenous; Remembering a Cultural Genocide

A large piece I had in the back of my head for sometime while gathering material. I wanted to create a remembrance for the cultures that were diminished and even destroyed upon the European 'founding' of North America. As in most my art I do this in a satirical way. In this memorial I chose to reverse the idea (as our American culture likes to do in remembering) and show what the Europeans invasion chose to cover their new lands with. The cow skull is to represent agriculture and the rise of mono-animal husbandry. The barbwire alludes to the fencing in of not only land and movement, but to the lost peoples. Finally, the feathers are to show our ignorance and misunderstanding of the native cultures or our description, the indians. This piece was inspired from my time in Wyoming and Montana a few years back.

The Sacred Heart of Clint Eastwood; A Sanctuary for the Damned

This piece is a reinvention of a study I did previously with the same image of the Clint Eastwood/Jesus figure. The following quote is from a previous statement on the image: "Obviously, the entity of Jesus is arguably different from that of Clint Eastwood, but Clint is a ideal, a character, and a vessel for story, just as Jesus is." In this piece I display a recognizable shrine full of offerings that many religious followings would also on to their idols or icons including liquor, prayer-like dolls, candles, gold, and tobacco. This piece is to act humorous, but also thought provoking to what we as individuals believe in or idolize.

Johnson & Murphy; An Institution of Law

I came up with this piece while investigating my cache of found and discovered items. The objects are mostly recognizable individually, but gracefully come together as a whole to pull the piece together. This piece is to promote secrecy, power, status, and illusion; all ways I feel about justice and the laws and people that protect that idea. The title presented itself while I was installing the shoes upon the shutters, Johnston & Murphy was stamped on the underside of the shoe so I dropped the 't' and created a law firm.

God Bless; A Sight unto True Color

I had to include one of my favorite and most remarked upon piece I have made. This was created years ago and has traveled in and out of many places, galleries, and homes. One of my newest endeavors will be to restore this piece and photograph it to be available in a print form. I believe the meaning cane be derived from the viewer's inspection of the piece, but if one would like to learn more on the piece, I have a post one the piece itself from March of 2011.

The Business of Women; Always About the Upper Hands

I wanted to include a briefcase into an art piece for it's power to various figurative meanings and almost instantly this idea came to me. The idea behind this piece to create a thought loop for lack of a better term. I have heard many people's take on this piece and have discussed my meaning on the piece. I enjoy what ideas people can derive from the relation and tension from just three objects. I won't explain my meaning of the piece, but I will say that it supports females in, not only business, but throughout the world.





Hanging Floral Arrangement; Ornate Scientific Diagram

After being asked to create a lamp for charity earlier this year I was left with various bottles and lamp materials. The idea was to create two almost ornate and symmetrical pieces to be hung side by side. I also wanted the piece to be decretive moreover than a piece of art. This piece is one, of a few, piece that I strictly created as an interesting composition to view. Any further thoughts are, of course, welcome to explore. 

Picnic of Purposeless[ness]; Arrangement of Lost Items

This piece is also a piece that I created before this show. It was, however, one of the first pieces that I really felt comfortable with the three-dimensioal and sculptural medium I have been in exploration of. From a previous statement about the piece: "delve upon the elements through material, color, reflection, and even personal histories. Upon deeper investigation one will start to discover that most the objects are unique in their own way even though they are the similar to their symmetrical oppositions. Further, various shapes and even distorted faces begin to emerge."

The Whitman's Room; A Look into the Simple

This piece was also created from the cache of items that I have slowly accrued. These items don't necessarily react with one another in most instances, but have been brought together in a small, yellow shadowbox to force strange, various relationships with one another. In a way, the whole composition feels like one would be looking at the dresser top of a small boy, preferably a character from a Wes Anderson film (Whitman is the last name of the three brothers in The Darjeeling Limited).

Water Rights; The Route Problem

This piece is similar to a piece I previously did some years back. I want the viewer to react to the piece and the title, wondering a bit more about it. I am trying to bring attention to the misuse and misdirection of water and it's right to be where we think we see fit. None of the hoses or fixtures line up in the piece further portraying the idea that we attempt to control the natural flow of water, the life force of the planet.

Amungus; False or distorted sensory experiences that appear to be real perceptions. These sensory impressions are generated by the mind rather than by any external stimuli, and may be seen, heard, felt, and even smelled or tasted.

The final piece in the show is a homage to alter senses and the various ways we may discover them from drugs to meditation and even further. These experiences travel over emotions that can be scary, beautiful, calming, chaotic, childish, and disorienting. When we look back to these experience they arrive in a final memory that may not entirely make sense, but is composed nonetheless.