Material and Metaphor III, 2023
tarp. construction mesh ( 11'x 6' ), found wooden palettes, dry wall.
Installation at Kresge Gallery, Lyon University, AR, November 2023
The transparency of the mesh used to fence a construction site recasts the mess into a place of potential and intrigue. In this installation, the length of the running fence collapses onto a flat wall. Each layer of blue adding and acting like a painted glaze.
Material and Metaphor II, 2023
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel (48" x 36") supported by capblock, orange sandbag peaking from behind. Installation at Kresge Gallery, Lyon University, AR, November 2023.
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 detail
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel (48" x 36") supported by capblock, orange sandbag
Fit, 2023
Installation at Kresge Gallery, Lyon University, AR; acrylic on cradled panel (12" x 9") with orange sandbag behind
Fit, 2023
Installation at Kresge Gallery, Lyon University, AR; acrylic on cradled panel (12" x 9") with orange sandbag behind
Installation at Kresge Gallery, Lyon University, AR
November 2023
Installation at Kresge Gallery, Lyon University, AR.
November 2023
Installation at Kresge Gallery, Lyon University, AR.
found and altered pallets, orange sandbag and plaster cast bricks.
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 detail
tarp. construction mesh ( 11'x 6' ), found wooden palettes, dry wall
Material and Metaphor II, 2023; tarp. construction mesh ( 11'x 6' ), found wooden pallets, dry wall.
In this installation piece, I wondered how else to 'paint’ the room and grapple with a surface barrier between us and the world. The surface of a painting is a kind of screen onto which I've been projecting ongoing meditations on construction and transformation. Historically, we talk about painting not quite as a screen but as a window into another world. A window, a screen. Maybe a 'filter' is also apt-- a barrier between us and something or somewhere else, holding something in or out while letting something else pass through. Filtered, the image is both more easily digestible and more distanced from reality. Closer and farther simultaneously.
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 detail
The particular blue of construction mesh and tarps is paradoxically appealing and alarming. In the aftermath of the tornado in 2020, tarp covered roofs created a dot to dot map of the tornado's path. But it is also a celestial blue like so many artists have used to render the dome of heaven.
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 detail
tarp. construction mesh ( 11'x 6' ), found wooden palettes, dry wall
MRH-Material-and-Metaphor-3-2023-deep-view.jpg
tarp. construction mesh ( 11'x 6' ), found wooden palettes, dry wall
MRH-Wrapped-9x12-2023.jpg
We Slept Easily, 2023; acrylic on cradled panel, 40" x 30"
As I worked on this group of works, not only the hue but the value range of light and dark narrowed. It needed (or I needed?) the contrast so close it threatened to become one flat plane. These are quiet paintings. If one is to see them, they require a long look to allow the eyes to adjust. They invite or require time and attention. Incidentally, they are also very difficult to accurately photograph. The blue, while quiet, is not a pushover. It changes the temperature in the room and has lingering effects.
We Slept Easily, 2023; detail
The flexibility of language intrigues me. Striving to make clear a meaning is about word choice but equally so intonation, cadence, and so many other nuances of relationship and context. In these paintings, some areas or forms are highly rendered and refined in a realistic manner. Other areas are barely painted, barely delineated. Language and meaning and our world are all under construction simultaneously, tipping in and out of focus.
We Slept Easily 2023 detail
acrylic on cradled panel, 40" x 30”
We Slept Easily, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 40" x 30”
We Lived, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 20" x 16"
We Lived Happily, 2023; acrylic on cradled panel, 30" x 40"
The title of this work is partially inspired by Ilya Kaminsky's poem "We lived Happily During the War". The contrast of our own life with the lives or losses witnessed leaves us with moral questions. For some, scenes of destruction like this foreshadow new construction and urban growth while around the world such sites promise only tragedy.
We Lived Happily, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 30" x 40"
We Lived Happily, 2023 detail
We Lived Happily, 2023 angle view
acrylic on cradled panel, 30" x 40"
We Lived Happily, 2023 detail
acrylic on cradled panel, 30" x 40"
We Lived Happily, 2023 detail
acrylic on cradled panel, 20 x 16"
We Lived, 2023 angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 20 x 16"
Stack and Mortar, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Stack and Mortar, 2023 angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Stack and Mortar, 2023 with Fit, 2023
Each painting is acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Spin, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Spin, 2023 with context
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Spin, 2023 angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Spin, 2023 with Linon's Mouth, 2023; each 12" x 9"
Scramble, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Scramble, 2023 angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Provisions, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 30” x 40"
Provisions, 2023 detail
acrylic on cradled panel, 30” x 40"
Provisions, 2023; angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 30” x 40"
Material and Metaphor II, 2023
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36", supported by cinder block
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 wall mounted
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36"
Material and Metaphor II, 2023
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36", supported by cinder block.
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 detail of shaped panel
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36"
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 angled view
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36", supported by cinder block
Material and Metaphor II, 2023 wall mounted
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36"
Material and Metaphor II, 2023
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36", supported by cinder block
Material and Metaphor I, 2023
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36", supported by cinder block
Material and Metaphor I, 2023 detail
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36"
Material and Metaphor I, 2023; detailed angled view of installation
The painting shapes itself to the world. The image, as a thought, reacts to physical realties. If this painting stands, it relies on the cinder blocks to do so. If it hangs on a wall, we will feel the incompleteness of the rectangle, the presumed shape for paintings and images historically
Material and Metaphor I, 2023; detail
Throughout the autumn, we would stop almost daily to observe the demolition of twenty some small apartment buildings on our morning commute. Our city redefining itself toward unknown ends. This is a witness image but removed, it could be anywhere; it could be an end or a beginning.
Material and Metaphor I, 2023 wall mounted
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36"
Material and Metaphor I, 2023 detail of installation
acrylic on shaped and cradled panel, 48" x 36", supported by cinder block
Lion's Mouth, 2023 detail with context
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Lion's Mouth, 2023 angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Lion's Mouth, 2023; acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
I think of all the hands that have used this lion faced door knocker and the number of graffiti artists making their mark over (who knows) how many years or decades. The blue absorbs all the sound, space, and time into one image, one signal.
Line Up, 2023 angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 9" x 12"
Line Up, 2023 with Fit, 2023
each painting is acrylic on cradled panel, 9" x 12" and 12" x 9" respectively
Line Up, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 9" x 12"
Hold, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Hold, 2023 angled view
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Hold, 2023 with Scramble, 2023
each painting is acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Fit, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Fit, 2023; angled view
Brick Stack, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Brick Stack, 2023 with context
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
Brick Stack, 2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 12" x 9"
And, and...,2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 40" x 30”
And, and...,2023
acrylic on cradled panel, 40" x 30”
And, and...,2023 detail
acrylic on cradled panel, 40" x 30”
Lavori in Corso, 2022
mixed media on panel, triptych, 48” x 108” (each panel 48” x 36”)
The Familiar Unknown, 2018 in the studio
Fugitive, 2016
mixed media on panel, 32” x 23”
Apparition, 2016
mixed media on panel, 32” x 23”
Portrait of L., 2012
graphite and graphite powder on paper
Portrait of B, 2012
graphite and graphite powder on paper
Sophia, Eyes Open, 2010-11
graphite and graphite powder on paper
Sophia, Eyes Open (detail), 2010-11
graphite and graphite powder on paper
Sophia, Eyes Closed, 2010-11
graphite and graphite powder on paper
Joshua, Eyes Open, 2010-11
Joshua, Eyes Open (detail), 2010-11
Joshua, Eyes Closed, 2010-11
graphite and graphite powder on paper
Apparition, 2016
mixed media on panel, 32” x 23"
The Familiar Unknown Installation (part 1), August 2018
Site specific installation on facing walls (drywall with graphite powder) at University of Alabama, Huntsville.
The Familiar Unknown Installation (part 2), August 2018
Site specific installation on facing walls (drywall with graphite powder) at University of Alabama, Huntsville.
The Familiar Unknown, 2018 in situ at Viridian Condos, Nashville, TN
mixed media on panel, 60” x 162”
The Familiar Unknown, 2018
mixed media on panel, 60” x 162,” Viridian Condos Commission, Nashville, TN
The Familiar Unknown, 2018
mixed media on panel, 60” x 162,” Viridian Condos Commission, Nashville, TN
Fallow Land, 2016
mixed media on panel, 48" x 60”
Harvest, 2016
mixed media on panel, 48" x 60”
A Fine Thread, 2016
mixed media on panel, 48" x 60”
The Familiar Unknown, 2018 (right panel of triptych above)
2-Center-Panel.jpg
The Familiar Unknown, 2018 (left panel of triptych above)
The Destination, 2015
mixed media on panel, 48" x 60"
MRH-The-Destination-2015-48x60-detail2.jpg
Meant-to-Be-Seen-2015-36x-48.jpg
Customized, 2015
mixed media on panel, 20" x 24"
Radical Breakthrough, 2015
mixed media on panel, 80 x 36”
photo-11.jpg