Ornithological Playthings

This particular body of work comes from my deep interest in the visual uniqueness of animals. I find birds some of the most surprising creatures—they are welcoming and soft, but also strangely reptilian. They are graceful but gangly and awkward. They are familiar but alien.

I have chosen to take images of birds and use them as my own playthings. I mix and match, slice and dice, genetically alter these animals to suit my own fancy. The birds are a medium. In manipulating them, they are rendered useless; their original biological functionality is lost. What once could fly is now grounded, what once could crow is silenced. In choosing graphite as a medium I hope to lend these pieces a simple, scientific, almost clinical feeling. I want to quote the ornithological illustrations one finds in catalogues and encyclopedias of birds. This is a visual exploration of the human being’s so-called “dominion over nature,” of categorization and manipulation.

Groceries

The Groceries series is a work in progress and is being added to on a regular basis. With this body of work I intend to focus my attentions on the banal, raising the simple act of visiting the grocery store to something worthy of fine art. I want to emphasize the fragmentary method in which many of us shop, using our hunting and gathering instincts in an easy, arranged environment. The slides included are only a portion of the future content of this project. I plan to incorporate paintings of grocery store “landscapes”, grocery clerk portraits, and sculptural elements involving packaging and display.