Lustprinzip: The Pleasure Principle
2021
The term lustprinzip In Freudian psychoanalysis, the pleasure principle (German: Lustprinzip) is the instinctive seeking of pleasure and avoiding of pain to satisfy biological and psychological needs. This show is a collection of works in reaction to the tragedies and comedies of the past few years which have felt like a constant wave of physical, psychological, emotional and actual, fire tornados. It felt like this was a moment to celebrate what is still possible, and also poke a little fun at myself and the capitalist machine driving so much of our common tragic history. The work for me represents little views in to my escapist and avoidant duality; some of it beautiful and confrontational, some of it absurd and uncanny.
Figure sculpting, master copies (studying and making works resembling the original) and exploration and experimentation with the potters wheel for sculptural and two-dimensional canvas work have been themes throughout this past year. Influenced by the release of the Bernini Terra Cotta’s from the met in a fully accessible PDF, the abolitionist wares of the Wedgwood factory, Della Robbia reliefs, Toby mugs, and Greek and Roman pediments. A large part of the show was created in Las Vegas, which has a rich visual and cultural milieu to pull from. I am interested in blending history and the contemporary moment, increasing my understanding of ancient and modern techniques, and most recently laughing a bit while I make my work.
Isolated Moments
2020
Reflecting on a year in isolation; singled out moments of strength, courage, and beauty in times of everything but. Fantasy narratives constructed with friends and props to defeat the year that seemed like the apocalypse. Experiments in 2D transfers to ceramic decals, large china paintings, and modular porcelain frame pieces.
This series expands on a previous body of work, "Slow Fascination" It is part social commentary on how fast our culture is, and how it devalues people, and it is also part re-programming for me personally. I want to tell people they are important by spending hours drawing their portrait for no gain of my own besides intrinsic development of my craft. Also, Just taking more time to be present with my artwork rather than engaging the phone constantly. The idea subverts internet culture for the viewed, the viewer, and the artist.
When I see beautiful portraits and photographs on the Internet I dont spend more than a tenth of a second processing it. But when it is in an art context, we value it more, and I think creating some value in people’s lives helps to subvert a bit of the value taken by the social media hang ups.
Corpus Substantia
2019
Figures emerge from a dream like state taking with them the vestiges and colors of that illusory world. Glinting and gleaming with a gasp of reality, like memories shimmering, barely accessible upon the waking consciousness.
The work is a balance of extremes, floating in the liminal state between form and formlessness, life and death, spirit and body. The sculpted figure has shifted through cultural exchanges and social importance, and the medium of clay holds within its tempered body the stories of people untold. The work serves to hold the anachronism of figurative sculpture in clay and add to the collective mythos. Revealing and concealing stories within the surfaces of the clay, weaving a web of fantasy, and mystery.
