// Field of Dreams //

Tall pedestal: 6” x 9” x 12”

Small pedestal: 6” x 6” 11”

Bronze

2016

// The Investment //

Vermiculite, sand, plaster

5” x 8” x 17”

2016

// Sprued Free //

Wax

6.5” x 6.5” x 17”

2016

I think that my art stands on its own. I feel no need for a genuine statement of what I do. I guess if I were to say anything about my

craft/art, I would try to purvey that I have a desperate passion to create and be more alive through my pieces. When you have the option to have an outlet for your desires it can be extremely freeing. That is what I wish to allow myself to do when I create. I almost always have a muse that inspires me to be what and who I am no matter what. That muse also assists in relating to the audience how loving I can be to myself, and others. I try to stay away from the destination addiction that is my affliction when I craft. TO be a solid artist in my opinion you have to embrace the chaos. When we enliven ourselves as makers, the embodiment we ensue is extremely dependent upon the absolution of our habits. Bringing the chaos to our space can bring the freedom of expression that comes without intent. Embrace the chaos. Let it drive you. The current muse will guide you to those feelings deeply rooted in the psyche.

This particular piece is one of great despair to my heart. I started out working in these waxes that you see, and had many ideas about what I wanted to explore. In a joking manner, I chose the tool you see before you. At first wanting to mock the tool itself, and add a sense of security from its non-use. I was going to accomplish this by literally modifying the form and adding kitschy items such as jewels and leather, maybe flowers, or taking away the usual masculinity that the form held by decoration. That evolved and changed not so dramatically to them being still useable, but empowering for the user by different sexual connotations, such as “Mister Fister” (a set designed around a detachable penis).

Next, I thought maybe By setting the knuckles in a socio religious mounting, that I could bring the statement of violence to the forefront for others to witness and contemplate by seeing the religious books of the world cut out and hiding the knuckles inside like the secrets of

violence that they have hidden for millennia. That not being a new idea got quickly squelched by my peers, and I eventually agreed that going that avenue would not purvey what I really enjoyed about the form. I then got frustrated and tired of not living in the chaos that I so enjoy so I started just randomly throwing thoughts out. A DNA strand maybe, or a penis, Oh wait I GOT IT! A Vagina made from brass (technically bronze) knuckles! Ok, the ideas started flowing.

This will be a great way to utilize this form as empowerment I thought. Then the other side of the conundrum reared its ugly head, what if

females took offense to it? Me, being a male artist I quickly realized the fine line that I was walking at that point. So I dove into my psyche, found my inner lesbian and started asking my peers, male and female, what they thought about this project without any precursors. I got all sorts of reactions from “FUCK YEAH”, to “Oh my god that sounds amazing!”. I wanted to utilize the brass knuckle form in bronze to exemplify the strength and brutality that the mother ship can hold in this world of ours. Some people say that I have a fascination with the vagina. That may be true. But it is a respectful fascination that I learned from having a loving mother, sisters, and great women of all sorts in my life. I wanted to literally put them on a pedestal to shine and be appreciated like they all should be.

Let’s get back to the bronze knuckles. All of the knuckles you see here today were supposed to be cast in bronze. I put many hours into these

wax casts to be ready for a casting pour in bronze. A mere few days before the casting pour I was pulled aside and told that Washington state law does not allow the manufacture of dangerous weapons, and that being this is a state institution , I would not be able to move forward with my project. I was aware that the RCW stated not to possess them or be fined, but to manufacture them for an art piece. Come on! Where is my artistic freedom I thought! WTF over!

These Bronze pieces sit here in solidarity to one another, as a symbol of what could have been. To remind us that even our ideas can be crushed if we let them. I moved on to add these pieces to the show so that you, as the viewer can be reminded to STAND UP!! MAKE ARTISTIC

FREEDOM FOR YOURSELVES, AND REFUSE NO ONE THE RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES!!!!!! Fuck Washington State RCW’s, and the

collar of fear they have on our instructors. I would have taken the consequences, but alas, it was out of my hands. I cannot, even as a free

man, ask another to put themselves at risk for my art. Would you? Destination addiction: a preoccupation w/ the idea that happiness is in the next place, the next job, and with the next partner. Until you give up the idea that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are.