Body

            Our bodies are the foundation for much of our actions and thoughts throughout the day.  Our bodies enable us to do everything, and yet we often forget about it completely.  My artwork often reminds viewers of their bodies and their place in the greater society. 

First, I often create work in large scale formats.  I want my work to catch the viewer’s eye and make them stop in their tracks to take and look.  Large scale works often have this effect on the body and I strive to replicate this.  Furthermore, the creation of my murals, large drawings and paintings, and sculptures require a lot of body movement.  Instead of being able to sit at a desk and paint on an intimate scale, I challenge myself to working with larger scales that require me to get on my hands and knees. 

Secondly, I enjoy making series of works to be presented at one time in an exhibition.  With a series, the viewer is encouraged to walk and move in order to see all of the pieces.  Of course, the spectator can see all of the works from a distance without much movement, but in order to see details, they may have to approach the works individually.

                The majority of my work is centered on themes about contemporary society and cultural issues.  These themes deal with the human population and our thoughts, decisions, and ideals.  I use a lot of symbols in my work and I commonly use a simplified, symbol-like image of the human body to represent deeper themes.  For example, in a series of drawings about the relationships between the individual and society I used cross-hatching lines to create a rough representation of the human figure.  I created a group of these figures on one corner of the paper and then a single, larger cross-hatched figure in the middle of the page (see below).  In this case, the inclusion of the human bodies was not a depiction of the physical human body, but the societal associations of the body.

                Although it is not often a central theme of my work, the body plays a role in every one of my artworks, whether it is during the creation process, the viewing, or the what the body represents in our world.