Artist's Statment

I once read a book about the science of cartoons. In it the author describes a phenomenon where the simplicity of the characters encourages the reader to invest themselves in the character. Cartoons have a unique ability to disarm us. My sculpture attempts to harness this. While an audience's defenses are down i make a suggestion. Point out a path that perhaps the viewer hasn't explored.

A piece is successful when it reveals a familiar moment in what it is to be human. It can be something as small as the affection one feels toward their favorite toy or as complicated as an unrecognized injustice our society unintentionally supports.
When the audience recognizes that moment as something from their own lives, possibly something they never took time to think about i consider it to be a success.

Cartoons are like vanilla ice cream. We all grew up with them. There is something very familiar about the simple lines and shapes. Perhaps in that fact lays their ability to engage us. I grew up in a house that was filled with art from other cultures. I found the stylized lines and forms of cartoons echoed in the art of many cultures. African masks, Egyptian tablet figures, Coptic portraiture and Australian aboriginal bark paintings were among those that captured my imagination and inspired me to weave a thread of symbolism into my work. I like variety, something to mix up the flavor. This is where my own mythology comes in.

It is very important to me that the work has meaning, and it is multi-leveled. I often create a surface meaning that is easier to recognize, then use a library of symbols and text that i've developed over my lifetime to layer ideas into the physical form. This allows me to create a deeper, subtler symbolism in the piece.

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