The Waiting Room, 2017.  95″ tall x 160″( edition of 1 ) to 31″ tall x 53″ wide ( edition of 12)

Transition

Recently a friend was describing an NPR Radio Lab episode(Afterlife season 6, episode 2 http://www.radiolab.org/story/91680-after-life/ ) he heard, which was about death. In the episode, a writer and scientist was talking about three deaths and a waiting room. The story, as my friend told it to me, grabbed my attention; I immediately thought it would be an interesting art piece.

A few days later, I was listening to Radio Lab when that very episode was rebroadcast. I was struck by the coincidence, and struck again by the concept and the possibilities for imagery that it conjured.   I ordered the book by neuroscientist David Eagleman,, where this tale of three deaths and a waiting room originated. The book, SUM: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, is a collection of his essays which explore what the afterlife might be like. All of the stories are well written and immensely creative. But it was  Metamorphosis, that had aired on Radio Lab, that I found myself still wanting to pursue.

Metamorphosis is about the process of waiting to full explanation at this link

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Ormond Art Museum and Gardens, Ormond Beach, Florida.

Reflections on Self and Society, Solo Exhibit, Artist Talk and Opening on March 16. Dates of show are March 16-April 22, 2017

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The Arts Company, 5th Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee

Understanding Contemporary Relationships, Solo Show at the Arts Company, June, 2017. Downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

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 Artist-in-Residence for The Gathering at Keystone College

July 14-16, 2017 I will be Artist in Residence at The Gathering at Keystone College. The theme will be …ways to find common ground among bitter rivals in religion, politics, ethics, race, and the arts and sciences that have deeply divided America.

http://thegatheringatkeystone.org/schedule/

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Solo Exhibit, Arts at the Airport, Nashville International Airport, Sept 4, 2017- Feb 25, 2018

 

 

Created in 1988 by the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA), Arts at the Airport is an ever-growing, ever-changing showcase of cultural diversity and creative talent in Tennessee. The terminal and surrounding facilities at Nashville International Airport were designed to incorporate rotating public art exhibits and permanent acquisitions.

The art in image above is not mine, but from a previous exhibiting artist.  

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The 1663 illustration, Metamorphosis Planetarum, by the alchemist J. de Monte-Snyders served as an inspiration and starting point for my piece, The Challenge of Creation (2016).

In pondering this creation illustration from the 1600s, I tried to envision what a modern day version might look like. The question turned into what would a modern day creator look like?

Instead of going with a mythical God-like creator, as J. de Monte-Snyders did, I chose to represent each of us as creator.  We all participate in click here for rest of the story

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Anatomy of a Mural 

The RFP ( national Request for Proposal ) asked that the mural be urban, edgy, vibrant and colorful.  In creating the mural, I wanted to incorporate Loveland landmarks and history. The city has many beautiful and historic buildings, but when I looked at including them all in the mural, it made for a more historic and peaceful (as opposed to urban and edgy) piece. So in the end, I settled on five primarily industrial buildings.

Once I had the basic structure of the image, I began cutting and pasting multiple photos of weathered paint and paper, utility poles, street signs, words from documents and other images and text for color and texture. read about the entire mural and the key to finding and understanding everything in it at this link

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See more images from the July 9, 2015 artist talk and opening here….TGPC Opening.

Also, thanks to Penny, Cindy and Lenore for the posters, catalog, postcards, images, video and the large amount of work that went into the show.  Link to the Gallery at Penn College site.

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Man with Parachute

Last year I jumped off a mountain.  Since I am afraid of heights, I had not planned such a thing, but I was on a trip and had vowed to a friend to be more to experience. Which is how the 9200 foot tandem paraglide jump in Sun Valley, Idaho happened.

I have been asked by a number of people if it changed me.  The answer is a qualified yes. There was no big “aha!” moment where I suddenly realized I was free and had no fears.  But there was a subtle shift from my lifelong tendency, when afraid, to say “no,” to being able to remind myself that I jumped off a mountain, which makes whatever is scaring me no longer so big.

This piece is was inspired by that jump.  It is about the metaphor of taking a leap into something that we know probably will not kill us, but scares us terribly anyway.  And it is about bringing something back: the courage to jump again and again.

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Last year at an open air flea market on the pier in Barcelona, I found a group of illustrated WWI cards made by the chocolate company Chocolate Amatller. The cards were bright and colorful and hardly conveyed the gravity of war.  I bought thirty and kept them out on a table for inspiration. They were the starting point for this piece.

The Search for Balance on first glance may appear to be a statement about work, success, and career competition as war, and certainly I had Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in mind when building it.  But I also had Middle Passage, by Jungian Psychologist James Hollis, about the journey and struggle of midlife on my mind, as well as Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching which encourages one to go with the flow of life rather than fight against it.

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