Focus on Raising the Child, 2024
8’9” x 20’ x 8’10”, String, yarn, fabric, steel, poured acrylic paint, Hawaiian black lava salt, rice paper sheets, and colored sand
My installation explores the present state of American discourse, consciousness, and my experience with contemporary culture.
“Focus on Raising the Child” is a return to my ideas of reflection, personal insight, and resolution. Contained in the corridor is the riddle of the murmurs of the pathway. Corridors present an interesting dilemma in which there are two entrances, and two exits, which can create transformation and an internal discussion. I am often drawn to the enigma and the opportunity to consider this unique architectural pathway to resolve the answers I am struggling to discover. Separated by the space in between, the two walls of a corridor usually appear fixed or static. Here the walls are marginally broken, nonlinear, suggesting a fragmentation or a shift in the foundation. But at their foundation, they are sturdy and resolute, communicating and connecting through the strands of light and shadows on the floor and strands of reflective poured paint within.
The undulating strings represent a national consciousness and conversations of an unsettled nation, full of pessimism and anxiety. Although the strings appear to hang in isolation, upon close inspection, they are simultaneously entangled, sharing a common journey and destiny towards healing instilled in the meditative base.
The sculpture at the base and the use of black lava salt mimics a natural physical process and transformation. Salt has long been considered to possess healing properties in both Eastern and Western cultures. Here the black lava salt envelops the thoughts, creating a place of mediation, which flows towards a place of resolution and repose.
What question am I trying to ask the viewer? None. The installation is my effort to resolve my own personal anxiety and trying to process or resolve the current state of contemporary American culture. For me, raising a child is an unending and dutiful endeavor. If a child is cleaning a window, I do not want them fall off the ledge. Pay attention.
Purification of Guilt , 2023, Acts of Healing and Repair, Lightcatcher Museum
Purification of Guilt, 2016 , Viking Union Gallery Western Washington University
The Purification of Guilt, 2016, 2024
10'H x 15’L x 3’D
Rice paper sheets, spaghetti, string, fiber, cheesecloth, plastic, plastic wrap, gathered objects and salt
This was a site-specific the installation project at Western Washington University's Viking Gallery, Beyond Borders Exhibition and Lightcatcher Museum National Juried Biennial, Acts of Healing and Repair, that dealt with the release of guilt. The sculpture at the base is made of salt which is considered to have healing and purifying properties in both Eastern and Western cultures. Each string represents a memory to process and purify.