Sculpture
As Is | 23” x 14.75 | 2017
Not Getting Better | Archival digital prints, glass syringes, hypodermic needles | 9” h x 6.5” w x 0.9” d | 2014 | Exhibition history: Fine Arts Department, Minnesota State Fair, 101st Annual Juried Fine Arts Exhibition, August, 2012. Bloomington Art Center, Inez Greenberg Gallery, 36th Annual Members’ Juried Arts Exhibition, Oct.–Nov. 2012. AZ Gallery, 2013 Lowertown Art Show, St Paul, MN; November 2013. Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota, Made in Minnesota, January–February, 2014.
Honesty | Dollar bills, hardware mesh, galvanized steel, Wood | 11.5” h x 39” w x 2.6” d | 2008 | My original concept for the piece was to challenge a person’s moral fiber when presented with a temptation. I presented 316 dollar bills rolled and inserted into hardware mesh with nothing but friction and viewers’ ability to resist temptation being the only forces holding them in place. At its debut showing at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition (where 200,000+ people would be passing by), I expected such a number of bills would be taken so the word “HONESTY” would dissolve into illegibility—wouldn’t take many missing to have this happen—and eventually ALL would be gone. But Minnesotans = hyper-honest! In fact, people could not keep their hands off the money but not as expected. To my surprise and financial good fortune, people inserted nearly $150.00 additional dollars into the piece! Although people altered the letters somewhat, (especially adding to the “Y’) they didn’t remove or replace any bills as I had originally inserted them. Watching people “work on” this piece was a delight for the staff and I heard many funny stories. As an added bonus and to show that nature imitates art in perverse ways, the economy headed deeply south about a month after that showing and the recession was on. “Honesty” turned out to be an unexpectedly interactive piece that got under people’s psychological skin. It is about both the force at the center of our ethical self and resistance to temptation. The piece calls on the psychological space between trust and integrity, desire and restraint, impulse and regret.
Honesty (detail) | Dollar bills, hardware mesh, galvanized steel, Wood | 11.5” h x 39” w x 2.6” d | 2008
War on Terrorism | Mousetraps, oil stain, Wood | 23.75” h x 46.75” w x 1.75” d | 2014 | Exhibition history: Bloomington Art Center, Inez Greenberg Gallery; War and Peace, Nov.–Dec. 2003. Minnesota State Fair; 93rd Annual Juried Fine Arts Exhibition, Aug–Sep. 2004. Cornucopia Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota; Reflections of the Great War, March, 2006. Sioux City Art Center; 60th Juried Exhibition, Fall, 2006. Workhaus collective in association with the Playwrights’ Center group exhibition in conjunction with the premier of “A Short Play about 9/11,” September, 2011. The Ceres Gallery 10th National Juried Exhibition. The Juror: Samantha Rippner, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum, NYC. The Ceres Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 201, New York. May 22–June 16, 2012. The Ceres Gallery Friends Exhibition New York, New York. July 17–August 11, 2012. The Agora Gallery, 29th Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, NYC, NY. August 22–Sept 11, 2014. The Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota, Made in Minnesota, January–February, 2014.
Untitled (Elegy to Sandy Hook) | Butterflies | 18” h x 19.25” w x 1.5” d | 2013 | In “Untitled (Elegy to Sandy Hook)” I felt compelled to take some action, memorialize in some way the 12 girls, 8 boys and 6 women who lost their lives there. I wanted to use some skill that I learned when very young (mounting butterflies), and create a walled garden, a sanctuary that was modest and quiet and fragile. Exhibition history: Bloomington Art Center, Bloomington, Minnesota; 37th Annual Members Juried Arts Exhibition, November 2013. Excellence in 2D Award, Bloomington Art Center, Bloomington, Minnesota; 37th Annual Members Juried Arts Exhibition, November 2013. Instinct Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; Make Garden, November 2014–January 2015.
House Divided (109th Congress) | Polystyrene, enamel and glass | 18” h x 14” w x 11” d | 2006 | This is the 2006 party affiliation of the 109th Congress, 2nd Session (435 representatives: 231 R, 201 D, 1 Ind. and 2 vacant seats). The theme being the canceling-out of most of the body through strict party-line voting; the depiction of the handful of votes that constitute the rule of the majority and the overall loss of civility in civil discourse.
(detail) House Divided (109th Congress) | Polystyrene, enamel and glass | 18” h x 14” w x 11” d | 2006
Pharm-U-Topia | Gelcaps, shredded currency | 17.5” h x 25.75” w x 1.5” d | 2014
Grandma’s Pills | Archival digital print in gelcaps | 12” h x 9” w x 0.25” d | 2006 | “Grandma’s Pills” uses a photo I’d taken in the early ‘80’s of my grandmother. It was then cut into 312 capsule shapes and inserted into gelcaps and re-assembled. My suspicion that the pharma-industrial-complex uses the elderly as an ATM is tempered, in equal measure, with up-beat gratitude as many would not be themselves without their “pills.”
Grandma’s Pills (detail) | Archival digital print in gelcaps | 12” h x 9” w x 0.25” d | 2006 |
Recession Blues | Archival digital prints | 3.5” h x 8.5” w x 0.5” d | 2009
Bitter Pills (Recession ‘08) Archival digital print in gelcaps 4.25” h x 10.75” w x 0.25” d 2008 | When the recession was rapidly unfolding, we were bombarded with stories of sudden financial ruin and the impenetrably interrelated complexity of it all. The bitter pill (the worthwhile ordeal) I suppose was the wholesale recalibration of the national hubris.“Bitter Pills (Recession ’08),” is a blending of the pharmaceutical industry and money thing, being broke, the heath-care debate, etc. It is a single image that embodies all those frustrations, and ambiguous relationships and hopefully makes the brain tingle a little.
Bitter Pills (Recession ‘08) | (detail) Archival digital print in gelcaps | 4.25” h x 10.75” w x 0.25” d | 2008 |
Broke | shredded currency on 4-ply museum board | 2.625”h x 6.125”w x 0.3”d | 2012
Screaming Head #15 | Welded aluminum, oil paint | 54” h x 48” w x 10” d | 1983
Job Search | Archival digital prints on Rubix’s Cube | 2.25” cube | 2012 | Exhibition history: Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota, Made in Minnesota, January-February, 2014.
Mirror, Mirror | Archival digital print, galvanized hardware mesh, mirror | 13.75” w x 15” h x 1.5” d
Mirror, Mirror (on exhibit) | Archival digital print, galvanized hardware mesh, mirror | 13.75” w x 15” h x 1.5” d
Narcissist | Silver and gold mirrors | 17” w x 18.5” h | 2016
Leda and the Swan | Woven 1-inch strips of archival digital prints | 19.4” x 19.4” | 2017
The Internet | Archival digital prints in magnifying boxes | 19” h x 19” w x 1” d | 2011 | Exhibition history: 100th Annual Juried Fine Arts Exhibition at the Minnesota State Fair, August, 2011. Seattle Erotic Art Festival (SEAF) International Juried Exhibition, Seattle, WA, 2012. Agora Gallery, New York, NY; 29th Chelsea International Juried Exhibition, 2014. AZ Gallery, St. Paul, MN; 4th Annual Lowertown Art Show, 2014.
When Love is Far Away| Archival digital print | 10” x 10” 2015
Lady Godiva | Woven 1-inch strips of archival digital prints | 19.6” x 19.6” | 2019
Weeping Woman | anodized aluminum | 19” h x 23” w x 7” d | 1983