Biggie and shortie

Shortie:The best part of being a boy scout was to explore the California wilderness with my friends where we would often stumble upon litter or someone’s abandoned dwellings. Seeing what was left behind, we would try to imagine whose it was and why they had left. In my early twenties, I would visit a cabin in the woods and with the carefree nature of early adulthood, I would leave behind my own detritus. Suddenly, I had become what had spurred my curiosity so many years ago. Now, the work that I make in my own studio is a combination of what is left behind, by both myself and others.

In my studio, the unconscious arrangement of objects is what drives my work. I draw inspiration from an accumulation of wood by the road, to a cigarette in a tide pool. The destructive remnants of humanity are altered by time, but in my studio, I feel as if I can preserve these moments by composing the scenes in which these objects exist. As a director or curator of these past and present sets, I can arrange universally recognized products and intertwine them with my personal memories to preserve what is forgotten or no longer important. I love the challenge of trying to make things work together, adapt to each other visually and technically - to be purposeful in their substance and in their value and meaning. A cigarette or a crushed beer can be discard or the thread that ties two people together. I try to translate these moments that may soon be gone into a material statement that will last forever by highlighting the mundane things that make up our daily lives.

Biggie:

The best part of being a boy scout was to explore the California wilderness with my friends where we would often stumble upon litter or someone’s abandoned dwellings. Seeing what was left behind, we would try to imagine whose it was and why they had left. In my early twenties, I would visit a cabin in the woods and with the carefree nature of early adulthood, I would leave behind my own detritus. Suddenly, I had become what had spurred my curiosity so many years ago. Now, the work that I make in my own studio is a combination of what is left behind, by both myself and others.


There is something fascinating about the unexpected; the thrill of chaos propels me to work in spontaneous ways. My process in creating vessels and wall works is physical, I work to manipulate the material directly throughout different stages until a form emerges. In this symbiotic relationship between my process and me, I hope to understand myself through constant stimulation of the material. I am drawn to the unpredictability of clay, glaze and glass used in combination with one another. As I work with materials, I am interested in bringing beautiful form and surface to the overlooked and forgotten places I see each day, pulling textures and compositions from memory. These could be familiar spaces, aspects of abandoned buildings, or trash I see on the side of the road, any remnants of decay or ruin that one may define as detritus.

In my studio, the unconscious arrangement of objects is what drives my work. I draw inspiration from an accumulation of wood by the road, to a cigarette in a tide pool. The destructive remnants of humanity are altered by time, but in my studio, I feel as if I can preserve these moments by composing the scenes in which these objects exist. As a director or curator of these past and present sets, I can arrange universally recognized products and intertwine them with my personal memories to preserve what is forgotten or no longer important. I love the challenge of trying to make things work together, adapt to each other visually and technically - to be purposeful in their substance and in their value and meaning. A cigarette or a crushed beer can may be a discard, or the thread that ties two people together. I try to translate these moments that may soon be gone into a material statement that will last forever by highlighting the mundane things that make up our daily lives.

Biggie:

Humanity exists in constant a state of turmoil. Our planetary climate is in a dynamic state, fertility is on the decline, displaced and refugee status is on the incline. These are only a few worldwide obstacles that we as a species are attempting cope with. There is not absolute solution to these issues either. The layers of nuance associated with these challenges run incredibly deep. The source of this turmoil, however, seems somewhat transparent: technology. Whereas some areas we are struggling to understand how to live with a type of technology, in other areas we have a lack of it. In either instance, technology is a crux of our human condition. 

The common perception is that this technology is rooted in the world of science; an assumption that calls into question how art can be relevant in remedying any of these issues. Some would argue that art is meant to be a distraction or escape from our strife. I’d argue that art is not only bad at distraction but its ability to do so is trivial especially when compared to modern means of distraction. Today, our world is more distracting than ever. While the abundant access to information that modernity has provided may point towards awareness, distraction has created blinders to humanity’s fragility.

Art has the ability to create a space that pulls us out of the sea of distraction and makes us aware of our own existence. This is the role I strive for in my creative practice. I create work that intends to cultivate self-awareness and mindfulness. Humanity’s relationship to technology and Art’s relationship to Science are common threads that runs through much of my work. I intend is to challenge societal understandings of what art and science are with the ultimate thesis that the line drawn between these fields is immeasurably blurred and permeable.  Ideally, this argument will lead to greater accessibility to and understanding of humanity’s unique relationship with technology. I believe mindfulness leads to awareness which has the potential to inspire informed activism. 

 Shortie: 

Art has the ability to create a space that pulls us out of the sea of distraction and makes us aware of our own existence. This is the role I strive for in my creative practice. I create work that intends to cultivate self-awareness and mindfulness. Humanity’s relationship to technology and Art’s relationship to Science are common threads that runs through much of my work. I intend is to challenge societal understandings of what art and science are with the ultimate thesis that the line drawn between these fields is immeasurably blurred and permeable.  Ideally, this argument will lead to greater accessibility to and understanding of humanity’s unique relationship with technology. I believe mindfulness leads to awareness which has the potential to inspire informed activism. 

Biggie and Shortie Revised

Biggie:

I grew up in an oil town in the deserts of West Texas - a town that experienced crime waves with economic booms. It’s a place that bends to the vicious cyclical nature of commodity and crash, where more money means more pregnant kids, more violence, more backhanded opportunities and the strain on already fragile relationships between people of different races and genders. Pumpjacks and powerlines, rows and stacks of dollar bills, were the only things that rose above the barren surface of the earth, which I once regarded as a for-profit wasteland. As I have grown older, I have begun to see the desert, to find value in it, and to question man’s complex relationship to industrial lands like the kind I come from. My understanding of global social systems continues to grow and change, inspired by a passion for truth. Living in such a transitional and pivotal time, known as the Anthropocene, I feel compelled to expose the chain links between the industrial power structures that moved us here and the people who carried them on their backs. There is no point at which industry ends and man begins. They have built up and within each other like a scab absorbing a bandage, unsustainable progress suspended in liminal time, waiting for the inevitable and painful repercussions.

In my studio, objects are born from pain waiting, frustration, exhaustion, and the desire to challenge both my understanding and dialogue with the world around me. Using ceramics, wood and metal I create figures and landscapes that mimic the dysfunction and destruction of Anthropocentric relationships while simultaneously questioning the systems that created them. I make work within the context of understanding artists as seekers and gatherers of knowledge, stories and communities. My current work exists in the realms of discomfort and heartache - but does not abandon the viewer there, it populates the space with them. It is the quiet of a dry river bed, of a forest without trees, of abandoned buildings and floating plastic bags- the quiet of a moment where viewers are given the opportunity to relinquish their comfortable blindness, and see the world as it is.

Shortie: I grew up in an oil town in the deserts of West Texas - a town that experienced crime waves with economic booms. It’s a place that bends to the vicious cyclical nature of commodity and crash, where more money means more pregnant kids, more violence, more backhanded opportunities and the strain on already fragile relationships between people of different races and genders. As I have grown older, my understanding of global social systems has grown and changed and instilled in me a passion for truth. Living in such a transitional and pivotal time, known as the Anthropocene, I feel compelled to expose the chain links between the industrial power structures that moved us here and the people who carried them on their backs. There is no point at which industry ends and man begins. They have built up and within each other like a scab absorbing a bandage, unsustainable progress suspended in liminal time, waiting for the inevitable and painful repercussions.

In my studio, objects are born from pain waiting, frustration, exhaustion, and the desire to challenge both my understanding and dialogue with the world around me. Using ceramics, wood and metal I create figures and landscapes that mimic the dysfunction and destruction of Anthropocentric relationships while simultaneously questioning the systems that created them. My current work exists in the realms of discomfort and heartache. It is the quiet of a dry river bed, of a forest without trees, of abandoned buildings and floating plastic bags- the quiet of a moment where viewers are given the opportunity to relinquish their comfortable blindness, and see the world as it is. 

Biggie Revised:

My work portrays resilient female figures in the face of oppression or defeat. The women in my work are empowered by their landscape, as they subjugate fiery horizons and volcanoes, reclaim wet, womb-like caverns, and retreat stealthily into the opening of a cave-like canopy. Imitating feline creatures and animal beasts through the expressiveness of their bodies further strengthens their connection to the natural world. They embrace abjection as a reference to their own primitive mammalian functions, and defy male-centered anthropocentrism as the dominant means of establishing power.

 I use figurative painting to render a primordial and contemporary female experience. Symbol is an essential component of my work. Mesh shirts, cheetah print dresses, jewelry with butterfly emblems, and posters from my own bedroom references the modern experience of life as a young woman. I am simultaneously inspired by ancient female icons, such as the Oracle of Delphi, the banshee from Irish folklore, and virgin sacrifices to chthonic spaces in ancient indigenous Central American cultures. In my work, I transform these women into contemporary reincarnations who express their feminine sensuality and emotion. While creating a more representational self-portrait solidifies narrative in a specific moment and time, stylization of the figure may enable greater ambiguity and open interpretation for the viewer.

This work creates an alternate reality where young women are liberated from experiences of helplessness and emboldened to expose their own weakness. I look to artists such as Ana Mendieta, Kiki Smith, and Jenny Saville, who deconstruct vulnerability and re-contextualize it as a structure for empowerment. My work establishes a relationship to these artists by celebrating the female experience and critiquing the limitations imposed on it by a patriarchal society. It is my hope that these paintings project my viewer and myself into a world of fearless, brave women, which can reveal truths about our own reality and encourage change.

Shortie:

My work portrays resilient female figures in the face of oppression or defeat. The women in my work are empowered by their landscape, as they subjugate fiery horizons and volcanoes, reclaim wet, womb-like caverns, and retreat stealthily into the opening of a cave-like canopy. Imitating feline creatures and animal beasts through the expressiveness of their bodies further strengthens their connection to the natural world. They embrace abjection as a reference to their own primitive mammalian functions, and defy male-centered anthropocentrism as the dominant means of establishing power.

Working with symbol, saturated color, and stylization of the figure enables me to render a primordial and contemporary female experience. Mesh shirts, butterfly jewelry, and posters from my own college bedroom symbolize modern femininity, while references to ancient female icons connect my work to timeless womanhood. Using a heightened color palette allows me to imagine an alternate reality devoid of female powerlessness. I create specific or ambiguous narratives by experimenting with shifts from representation to abstraction as I render the figure.

In this work, I facilitate a mythological landscape that connects women and nature and reclaims female sensuality. By celebrating emboldened and unrestrained femininity, I reveal truths about our own patriarchal society and the limitations it imposes on the female body. I hope that this work offers an alternative perspective on the experience of womanhood and re-contextualizes vulnerability as a structure for female empowerment.

Biggie and Shortie

Biggie:

However, distorted the reality; my art is simply a reflection. Focusing on the enjoyment that I derive from the making process. I create from my experience. I am an athlete, a carpenter, a sculptor, a welder and a smith. Physicality and tactility are intimate forces in my life. I cannot help but leave my mark visible in my work.

I have founded my art practice on the exploration of my personal experience as a male growing up in rural Appalachia. Baseball hats, steel-toed boots, pocket knives, and other markers of labor have been objects that I consider to be defining elements in my life.

 I often choose to substitute materials swapping steel for fabric, or ceramic for wood. I rely on elements of craftsmanship in conjunction with conscious material choice to impart a brief impression of my prolonged contact with, and relationship to, the original item. Through this I attempt to show my understating of objects that I find deeply routed in the psyche of rural America.

Recently, I have made an effort to move away from clear depictions of the articles concentrated in my past, and have begun an exploration into my present existence. The result is more abstracted and conceptual as I sort through my current experiences as an art-school-dropout-turned-contactor-returned-to-the-realm-of-the-art-student. I am drawn to the conversation that materials have with their environment, and am continually seeking to understand why materials are segregated and compartmentalized into sources and resources: place and product. By extension, I find myself considering the manner in which people are classified or dismissed as resources

The nuances and meanings of material are ingrained in every culture, and by adulthood we believe that we so clearly understand those meanings that we often disregard them, much like we do with people. Subverting, disguising, and exposing those nuances of material in myself, and my social environment, is an ongoing investigation for me. I find comfort in making, ruminating through touch. I feel no shame in my desire to create objects. To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a hat is just a hat; but a hat is so much already.

Shortie:

I have founded my art practice on the exploration of my experience as a male growing up in rural Appalachia. Baseball hats, steel-toed boots, pocket knives, and other markers of labor have been objects that I consider to be defining elements in my life.

I alter the material from that of the original to make it more appropriately reflect my understanding of those important objects. I rely on elements of craftsmanship in conjunction with conscious material choice to impart a brief impression of my prolonged contact with, and relationship to, the original item. Physicality and tactility are intimate forces in my life and I cannot help but leave my mark visible

Recently, I have moved away from duplicating articles concentrated in my past, and have begun exploring my present existence as an art-school-dropout-turned-contactor-returned-to-art-student. I am drawn to the conversation that materials have with their environment. Why are materials segregated and compartmentalized into sources and resources: places and products? By extension, I consider the manner in which people are classified or dismissed as resources.

The nuances of material are ingrained in every culture, and by adulthood we understand and often disregard those meanings, much like we do with people. Subverting, disguising, and exposing these nuances in myself, and my social environment, is an ongoing investigation for me. I find comfort in making, and I feel no shame in my desire to create objects. To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a hat is just a hat; but a hat is so much already.

Biggie and Smalls

Biggie:

We are reminded of our faults almost daily. With the media having a constant presence in our lives, discussions about pollution, war, poverty, inequality, and climate change seem like everyday occurrences. Even when trying to tune things out, the conversation inevitably creeps back in.

The future seems overwhelmingly negative, every new story feels like another tick on the doomsday clock. This endless barrage has us pointing fingers, but pointing fingers changes nothing. Although these problems are important, what affects us the most is not these worldwide issues; it’s the things closest to home. I believe the aspects of life we usually overlook are actually the most important things to focus on. Instead of being encouraged to live life as individuals, or to even to know what that means, we’re told how to change the world.  

My work highlights aspects about myself that I recognize need changing. It’s an endless process, but I’ve found not actively trying to understand your faults is destructive. It causes you to suffer at your own hand, eventually leading to the suffering of those around you. My practice focuses on the personal process of transformation. Whether it be a lesson I learned, or a fault I uncovered; my work helps me further understand these discoveries about myself.

Through aesthetic, I attempt to imbed these personal issues in worldwide ones; because unchecked faults will eventually exist in the real world. By representing these experiences through objects, I attempt to build a world that combines the personal with the universal. If you ignore your shortcomings and stagnate, things will degenerate into your own personal hell. In my eyes, this happening at the population level would be cataclysmic; so to show the viewer (and myself) the danger in not taking this responsibility, I build environments that seem post-apocalyptic. My goal is to highlight what is personal with the same heavy brush used for worldwide crises.

Shortie:

The future seems overwhelmingly negative. With the media having a constant presence in our lives, every day we hear another tick on the doomsday clock. We’re told the world has to change, causing everyone to point fingers. Although the worldwide issues we face are important, they are not what affects us the most; it’s the things closest to home. We’re continuously reminded of our faults as a species with little emphasis on how to orient ourselves as individuals.    

My work highlights aspects about myself that I recognize need changing. It’s an endless process, but I’ve found not actively trying to understand your faults is destructive. You will suffer at your own hand, eventually leading to the suffering of those around you. My practice focuses on the personal process of transformation. Whether it be a lesson I learned, or a fault I’ve recognized; my work helps me further understand these discoveries about myself.

Through aesthetic, I attempt to imbed these personal issues in worldwide ones; because unchecked faults will eventually exist in the real world. By representing these experiences through objects, I attempt to build a world that combines the personal with the universal. If you ignore your shortcomings and let them go unattended, things will degenerate into your own personal hell. In my eyes, this happening at the population level would be cataclysmic; so to show the viewer (and myself) the danger in not taking this responsibility, I build environments that seem post-apocalyptic. My goal is to highlight what is personal with the same heavy brush used for worldwide crises.