Statement
I am a public artist, theater designer, inventor and community educator, with a long history of creating large-scale puppets, masks, and kinetic set pieces for theater productions – as well as interactive, animated, site-specific sculptures. Over the past decade, I have striven to bring all the dynamism and audience engagement, so integral to theater, to the public art installation platform.
The ecology of my materials process is predominant, with most of the materials for my works being culled from the manufacturing and post-consumer waste-streams. I also have endeavored, from the very beginning of my work in the arts, to conserve energy and to keep my chemical output to an absolute minimum. I believe that production methods are as important as artistic products. In fact, my work in the arts is propelled by a deep, obsessive love for the intrinsic value of raw-material culture and a concern for the health of the Earth. Much of my work references the importance of valuing resources and considering the impact of our lifestyles on the ecosystem.
Thematically, I have gravitated, time and again, to the subject of animals. There’s something about animals that, it seems, all people, regardless of background, can relate to. I think we all recognize, on a deep level, our collective kinship to the beasts. They serve as our collective de-nominator. Without the animals we would not exist.
I evolved as a professional artist, specifically in the context of community-engaged arts. I am principally a collaborator, thriving when in association with community members, stake-holders and fellow artists. My long history of work in the both community-based and professional theater has instilled this sense of being a “team player”. I enjoy the challenge of crafting artwork that resonates with the “collective whole”.
I think it’s important to produce work that does not feel alienating but feels familiar and uplift-ing—helping to ground people in their communities. I feel that public artworks should celebrate our collective humanity and affirm our connectedness to one another, the world and the uni-verse.
I believe in the interconnectivity of all things, from stars, to wolves, to plastic bottles. Much of my public art stresses this inter-relatedness.