Friday, December 10, 2010

Words that try to make sense of what I do.

In addition to writing an artist statement for a catalogue that's going to be published for the 2011 Biennial at the Portland Museum of Art, I also had to answer the following questions:

Notes on process: How would you describe your artistic process? Feel free to discuss any aspect of the making of the work from concept to finish, choice of media and materials, etc.

Notes on content: What is your intent with the work, your hopes for the viewer’s encounter, the meaning or purpose for creating this work? What are your inspirations and influences?

And here is what I wrote:

Before you read this, you should know that I've probably already changed my mind. Changing my mind is one of my favorite things to do.

My work always begins with an idea. Where those ideas come from is up for debate. Do they come from within me, like magical beads of mental perspiration? Or are they actually just reflections of things that already exist in the world around me? I’m unsure. But my artistic process involves much more reading, observing, and plain old life-living than actual making. I notice, I wonder, I reflect, I plan, and then eventually I execute.

My ideas are often inspired by specific objects I encounter in my everyday life – clocks, Post-it notes, belly button lint, disposable coffee cups, colorful pennant flags, those wacky-arm-waving-inflatables you see dancing in the wind at used car dealerships… By employing devices and processes that are ordinary and familiar, I hope to encourage a certain level of understanding and participation.

My artwork primarily takes the form of sculpture, installation and interactive media. It often investigates time and change - the subtle, everyday evidence of time’s passing. Is time cyclical or linear, finite or infinite? How do we identify change? How do we quantify it? To me, time represents an accumulation of moments, an accumulation of ‘now’s. What is the length of now? What is its weight? What does it mean to be ‘here’? There is a subtle distinction between absence and presence. Now and then are one and the same. Our days are numbered by our daily rituals.

I make work that requires further investigation. I attempt to materialize the intangible. I hope to show that we can still find wonder in the world around us.

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