Classic(pre 2016) > Building Forever

This project features sculpture and drawings that work together to meditate on the myth of progress through the lens of fatherhood. The work in this exhibition is the product of a unification strategy in my studio practice whereby the sculptures are created from drawings that in turn generate drawings, perpetuating a cycle of generation and furtive mutation. The sculpture materials are all lightweight, drawn-on and patently fake - papier mache, vinyl flooring and plaster with surface drawing of ink and watercolor; the drawings are large format studies in bright surface color articulated in black ink.
This work is heavily influenced in form and spirit by my experience as enthusiastic albeit tired and addle-brained father. This time in my life seems to generate a feeling of absurd impossibility that somehow works. On paper I am master of plans toward concrete ends, but in reality I feel like I’m juggling a raft of moving parts on a surging river. In these works I am trying to pick one spot, one daily provisional experience and build a castle on it by capturing that idea in a drawing. By then making them physically real as sculpture I’m hoping to force these worlds to knock against each other and create stories that then feed back into the drawings. This time of my life seems vital, hilarious and scattered and I'm trying to reflect that with the work.

Birds Words
ink on paper
42x36"
2014
2015
A Wet Book Opens Itself to the World
ink and watercolor on paper
42x37"
2014
Raft for the Storm Surge (studio shot)
paper mache, vinyl and styrofoam
9x6x4'
2014
Wet Hanger
ink and watercolor on paper
42x36"
2014
Sinking or Floating?
ink and watercolor on paper
44x31"
2014
Deep Sea Recovery
ink and watercolor on paper
44x31"
2014
Training My Replacement
paper and styrofoam
9x7x3'
2014
Training My Replacement
ink and watercolor on paper
42x39"
2014
Pulp Mountain
paper, plaster and cardboard
9x9x4'
2014
Seeker
ink and watercolor on paper
34x46"
2014
Seeker (orange)
ink and watercolor on paper
18x24"
2014
Tabletop Focus
ink and watercolor on paper
18x24"
2014
My Replacement
ink and watercolor on paper
18x24"
2014
Word as Raft
ink and watercolor on paper
30x36"
2014
Blue Raft
ink and watercolor on paper
18x24"
2014
The Golden Gate
collage
42x34"
2014