FOUNTAIN OF USE

Fountain of Use is a human-powered sculpture that demonstrates how participation, movement, and group dynamics together can determine a sculptural form. Made using carved limestone, cast bronze nozzles, and patinated stainless steel manual pumps, Fountain of Use employs mechanisms for interaction. A group of people “power” the aquatic spectacle like a quintet of improvisational musical players, each “performance” demonstrating how public sculpture can serve as inclusive, intimate, welcoming places for people to gather and have a good time.

Art Farm

Art Farm seeks to provide a generative format for freeform art making, or a “making ecosystem.” For Cranbrook’s “Ideas on Home” show, the Art Farm canvas “barn” was constructed as a 12’x12’ installation and placed outside the the Forum Gallery for the public to discover. Giant mark making brushes were fabricated by adhering paint brushes to the ends of manual farming tools. Gallons of colored fabric paint, sculptural materials, rigging wire and scissors were available for all to use. The installation was live each day for a week, and illuminated in the evenings so that the days work could be viewed at night. After the experience, the elements were deconstructed and reimagined as artifacts - a series of paintings, a rack to preserve the making tools for later use, and a small collection of lights.

POSSIBILITY PICNIC

A range of portable objects designed to foster collective creativity and define space in the landscape. Created for the Pophouse fellowship with Cranbrook 3D, this project looks at the act of gathering, implementing the grammar of utility to combine familiar functions in new ways might spark the imagination. It includes utensils that are also musical instruments, food nets that double as party hats, weighted coasters you use to play lawn games, and wearable umbrellas. All items fit within a backpack that also becomes a blanket.

SEED SERIES

The Seed Series reflects on light and dark, regeneration and rebirth, and nature’s wisdom in natural growth cycles. Revisited at times of personal transformation, the series is inspired by foraged seed pods, cactus skeletons, and dried flowers from the desert landscapes of California and Mexico. The cut paper studies and papier-mâché objects were created using pochote paper pulp, handmade paper and natural dyes made from flowers, cochineal and indigo in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Handmade Oaxacan paper, natural dyes

Pochote paper pulp, natural dyes, wood twig armature

Paper pulp, plaster, acrylic paint

36” x 36” plaster, steel armature, acrylic paint

SHROOM

A sculpture to celebrate the role of mushrooms in nature’s cycle of regeneration. Carved from the remains of a walnut tree that succumbed to the drought of 2015 in California’s Central Valley. Featured the Totum show, organized by curator Kyle DeWoody, Los Angeles 2021.

38” x 22” x 41” Black Walnut