Jumping between wildness and civility, this sculpture offers vehicles that transport the viewer to places within the human condition. Embodying two seemingly opposing qualities, the creation process is at times analytical, considered and calculated and at times intuitive, emotive and untamed; shot from the hip. The evidence of the unique situation of the human animal is symbolically exposed through the juxtaposition of unlikely materials. There is a sweet satisfaction in the discovery of trash that has been painstakingly gilded, bronze sculpture that intermingles with tattered furniture and zenlike films of nature projected within junkyard sideshow carts. Here one will observe circus trains, magical chariots and minstrel shows that promise to solve any problems of lackluster that one may come across.
The pieces are installed in a theatrical fashion, bringing to mind the props of the stage. The driver’s seats are often empty, allowing room for the viewer to step right up and enter the performance. The sculpture may visit a poker game, a campfire, a club, the desert or the beach, ever-circusing around the subconscious mind. The characters are humans are animals are humans are decoys. Sometimes they are not physically present but they have their places and their costumes. “Places everyone, places.” They are borne of fairytales, myths, tribal culture, the woods. They bang drums and gongs, strum harps, play piano, horns and spoons. They pull heavy loads and catch butterflies. They roast out-moded forms of behavior over spits. They drink tea and cavort. There are dancers, lovers, card players, professors of the wild. They ride on cars that can go to the past or the future. If a time machine was a circus was a human mind.
The sculpture at times represents discomforts that are cloaked in beauty. It may reveal discoveries that are bittersweet, exposing and confusing by turns. Like life, like chaos, we can begin to construct stories but seemingly random elements enter to break up patterns. Move as you will. Straddle the fence. Swing both legs back and forth on either side. Culture is wilderness.
