Pelletized

Pelletized

Statement for Pelletized, 61” x 13” x 13”, 2023

A vision of BIOMASS: constructed abstracted tree trunk skinned with an applied surface of purchased corporate produced pellets (chipped, shredded, ground then compressed and extruded through metal die under pressure.)

Thorn

Thorn

4” x 21” x 4” Fabricated surface of sliced bark and twigs attached to wooden core, 2023

Installation view of solo show at Hillyer, Washington, DC.

Installation view of solo show at Hillyer, Washington, DC.

Clear Cut (2018 -2022) Installation

Clear Cut (2018 -2022) Installation

Twigs and stick attached to constructed plywood armature surrounded by bark hands, 84” x 120” x 120” (Horizontal floor measurement varies with installation), 2018-23

Cut Here

Cut Here

104" x 18.5" x 18.5", found bark mounted on fabricated plywood armature with birch shims, 2023

Shell

Shell

20” x 15” x 16.5”

Found bark attached to fabricated plywood armature

2022

Split

Split

Found bark attach to a constructed plywood armature

81” x 33” x 14” (Free standing)

2021

Trunk

Trunk

47” x 16” x 16” Found twigs, sticks & branches attached to a plywood armature (floor placement)

Vestige

Vestige

Found bark and twigs attached to a fabricated armature

16.5” x 21” x 18”

2021

Residual Limb

Residual Limb

14.25” x 14.5” x 9.5”

Tree bark & twigs attached to constructed wooden armature

2021 (wall mounted)

Side by Side

Side by Side

Found twigs, branches & bark on constructed armature

13” x 17” x 8” Wall mounted

2021

Curl

Curl

Found twigs, branches & bark on constructed armature

19” x 16” x 8” Wall mounted

2021

Sylva

Sylva

Found twigs and bark attached to a constructed armature

2020

58” x 25” x 7.5”

Truncated

Truncated

9” x 16” x 10”

Found bark and twigs attached to plywood armature

2022

Mother

Mother

Found twigs and bark on a constructed armature

2020

9” x 11.5” x 11”

Dryad

Dryad

Found twigs and sticks on constructed armature

50” x 25” x 7.5 wall mounted

2020

Crotch

Crotch

Found twigs and sticks on a constructed armature, 2020

Splindered

Splindered

Found sliced bark attached to a constructed armature

2020

22” x 26” x 18”

Spiral

Spiral

Found twigs and sticks on a constructed armature

2020, wall mounted

23.5” x 24”x 8”

Felled

Felled

Found twigs and sticks on a constructed armature with fabricated vines, floor placement

16” x 12” x 81”

2020

Infolding

Infolding

Found twigs and bark on constructed armature

28” x 27” x 6”

2020 Wall mounted

Growth

Growth

Found twigs and bark on constructed armature

15” x 5.75” x 3.5”

2020 Wall mounted

Segment

Segment

25” x 26.5” x 7.5”

Found twigs and branches on constructed armature

2019

Like human skin, bark conforms to a tree. Like skin, tree bark heals with scars. The end grain of logs notes the distortions in the growth rings resulting from injury-a callus. It is similar to the swelling around a cut in human flesh.

Fragment

Fragment

23” x 29” x 5”

Found Twigs and bark on constructed armature, 2019

Wall mounted

Log

Log

Found twigs and small branches attached to a wooden armature

16” x 15.5” x 16.5”

2019

With increased urbanization, suburbia and inner cities have logs to commemorate the former arboreal landscapes which were the sources for oxygen, mitigation of soil erosion and avian life.

Stump

Stump

Found twigs and small branches attached to a wooden armature

9.5” x 18” x 28”

2019

With increased urbanization, suburbia and inner cities have logs to commemorate the former arboreal landscapes which were the sources for oxygen, mitigation of soil erosion and avian life.

Wound

Wound

14.5” x 13.25” x 4”

Found twigs glued to constructed armature

2019

Trees heal themselves…sometimes after we hurt them.

Injury

Injury

15.5” x 14” x 8.25”

Found twigs glued to constructed armature

2019

Trees heal themselves…sometimes after we hurt them.

Notch

Notch

Found twigs on fabricated wood armature, 17” x 30.75 x 15”, 2019

The death blow for any tree

Great Tree Memorial

Great Tree Memorial

Found twigs mounted on constructed armature surrounded by tree bark hand motifs, 7” x 47” x 47”, 2019 (Floor installation)

With increased urbanization, suburbia and inner cities have stumps to commemorate the former arboreal landscapes which were the sources for oxygen, mitigation of soil erosion and avian life.

Husbandry

Husbandry

27” x 13” x 2”

Paint on attached tree bark, 2018 (wall mounted)

The hand motif is found in prehistoric wall paintings: a mark of imposition on nature.

Paradise Elegy, 80" x 12" x 4" (wall mounted)

Paradise Elegy, 80" x 12" x 4" (wall mounted)

Painted tree bark attached to panel surrounded by twigs

…everything was lost as the town burned.

Bark Ring

Bark Ring

47” x 47” x 6”

Tree bark with twigs on felt, installation, 2018

I constructed a wooded yantra (focus for meditation). Like human skin, bark conforms to a tree. In the sculpture, the shed epidermis became a pre-historical human signature: hand motifs, man’s mark of impact. Will we support nature’s provision of trees as they are the source for human shelter, oxygen, and avian refuge?

Skin

Skin

Tree bark with incised letters
21" x 14" x 1.5"
2018
Like human skin, bark conforms to a tree. Wall mounted.

Hand Impression

Hand Impression

Paint on attached tree bark

27” x 13” x 2”

2018

The hand motif is found in prehistoric wall paintings: a mark of imposition. Wall mounted.

Vines

Vines

29” x 24” x 24”

Painted carved fabricated wood

2022

Perennial Enemy

Perennial Enemy

Found carved wooden bear with rolled US flag atop painted laminated contour of US

Wall mounted 8 ½” x 10” x 3”, 2018

Russia is no friend.

Shot Dead

Shot Dead

Shot Dead

Paint on carved wood with letters (Size: 10” x 12” x 12”) 2018

Repeatedly in the US, a white dominated society, males of color are suspect: vulnerable to impulse shooting.

Home?

Home?

8” x 12” x 12”, painted constructed wooden model 1'“ to 1’ scale.

Home is where one finds it when there is no permanent address.

Night Terrors

Night Terrors

Painted constructed wood

11.5” x 8.25” x 11”

2018

Wall mounted

According to the Mayo Clinic, sleep terrors are considered a parasomnia — an undesired occurrence during sleep.

Synagogue Shooting (Tree of Life)

Synagogue Shooting (Tree of Life)

8” x 8.5” x 7.75”, Paint on laminated wood8” x 8.5” x 7.75”, Paint on laminated carved wood.

Six million victims were not enough in the 1930's & 1940's.


Dead Water

Dead Water

DEAD WATER (size: 5” x 11.25” x 11.25”) Painted carved wood, 2018

In several locations in fresh and salt water bodies, there are areas completely devoid of life. Some are permanent, others are periodic. This occurrence of the loss of oxygen in the water is becoming more common and appears across the planet. The source is thought to be a result of agricultural runoff and industrial pollution.

Water Wall

Water Wall

WATER WALL, 24” x 62” x 17”, painted carved laminated wood, wall mounted, 2018
Constructing a wall does not insure complete safety from water intrusion nor desperate immigrants.

Leaded Home

Leaded Home

31” x 14” x 7”

Paint on scaled, constructed wooden house

Lead pervades the painted surfaces of older homes occupied by individuals with limited financial resources precluding optimal residences. Lead is a toxin which poisons persons, usually children, living in these spaces.

Bias

Bias

Shredded US currency, found dominos with US Capitol imprint, and paint on wood, 2017

16” x 18” x 4” (wall mounted)

Divergent political views of governance motivated by money. 

Liar

Liar

Collage and carved wooden tongue on wood, 2017

 8” x 13” x 3” (wall mounted)

The President of the US speaks with a forked tongue, a Native American term for untruthful statements. 

WHITE ONLY, ONLY WHITE: When America Was Great

WHITE ONLY, ONLY WHITE: When America Was Great

Side with figure and living room, fourth of four views

Found vintage wooden doll furniture and altered mannequin on constructed wooden architectural model, 2017

 10.25” x 11.5” x 10.25”

The backward embrace of a fantasy golden American age denies that it was fraught with racial and ethnic discrimination locking individuals in servile roles. 

WHITE ONLY, ONLY WHITE: When America Was Great

WHITE ONLY, ONLY WHITE: When America Was Great

Side with figure and kitchen, one of four views

Found vintage wooden doll furniture and altered mannequin on constructed wooden architectural model, 2017

10.25” x 11.5” x 10.25”

The backward embrace of a fantasy golden American age denies that it was fraught with racial and ethnic discrimination locking individuals in servile roles. 

Beautiful Wall?

Beautiful Wall?

Found Media & paint on wood

12.75” x 21.75”x .75”

2017

The wall is to keep them out or to keep us in?

The Brand

The Brand

Found Media & paint on wood

12” x 18” x 3”

2017

The President and his jesters…is that “what America was”? Is that where we are going?

Missing

Missing

32” x 30” x 86”, size varies slightly with installation

Installation incorporating a wall mounting with adjacent floor placement. Wall portion (24” x 12” x 12”): carved and painted laminated wood with found painted wooden boat. Floor portion (73” x 22” x 3”): carved and painted laminated plywood in the form of a human contour. 2017

Boats, vessels, are vehicles for escape or recreation; sometimes it is not successful.

Deal Maker

Deal Maker

 12" x 18" x 6" Shredded US currency & paint on carved wood

2017 wall mounted.

Who shapes politics?

When America Was Great: Duck and Cover

When America Was Great: Duck and Cover

15.5” x 12” x 12”

Acrylic paint, glue on polyester fill supported with wire and wood armature 2017

In 2016, Americans are asked to look back to when the nation was great.  I remember the anxiety of nuclear war threatening. As a child, I was taught when I saw a very bright light to duck and cover to avoid the blast.

Heels

Heels

 46" x 18" x 18" Carved wood covered with glitter 2017

Expectations

 

Sea Rise

Sea Rise

9' x 12' x 22"

Paint on carved and fabricated wood, installation, (2016)

With global warming, inundations become the norm.

Ugly American

Ugly American

11” x 12” x 5"

Paint and shredded US currency on shaped wood 2016

The pejorative, Ugly American, can become the moniker for any American political operative who is a crass, ridiculous, avaricious and divisive demagogue.

 

Bombs or Butter

Bombs or Butter

Bombs or Butter, 8” x 10” 3”, found figures on constructed painted wooden US contour, 2015

Considering the results of the “Shock and Awe” campaign of the 2003 Iraqi War, will our foreign policy and its patriotic fervor support life affirming nutrients or death promoting war implements?

Debt

Debt

20.5” x 6.5” x 6”

Found wooden toy figure with silver charm atop a painted fabricated wooden base and graduated wooden spheres covered with shredded American currency

2016

 

Owing money is a personal and professional burden.

Sacrilege: Mother Emmanuel


Sacrilege: Mother Emmanuel


8.5” x 6” x 7”Paint on wood (found blocks with toys) 2016

 

Churches are set apart for prayer and reflection not for carnage. An uninvited yet welcomed stranger to a bible study shot congregants after quietly sitting in their midst for an hour. 

Pawn

Pawn

48” x 14” x 10”, found wooden chess pawns on constructed, painted silhouette atop checker board base, 2015

As workers, we can see our selves in this position.

Guns Kill

Guns Kill

15” x 14” x 3”, found wooden blocks and paint on plywood, 2015

Xenophobia: Who is an American?

Xenophobia: Who is an American?

11 1/2” x 56” x 30”, found wooden bunnies, flag, and paint on plywood, 2015

In Native American mythology, the rabbit is a secretive, trickster animal, a shape shifter, who uses cunning to outwit foes.

No More

No More

No More 84” 54”x 54”, painted dominos, fabricated miniature wooden buildings on plywood with mixed media cloud, 2014

“No More,” reminds the viewer of the melt-downs of nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.  Is this the power source safe?

Balance

Balance

Balance, 21” x 7” x 7”, found toy titter-totter, carved and assembled wood with paint and gold foil on wood. 2014 

Parity in governance in the United States is skewed by the weight of unlimited money in the guise of free speech.

Water Fountains: When America Was Great?

Water Fountains: When America Was Great?

When America was Great: Water Fountain, 10” x 10” x 4” Acrylic paint on fabricated wood and plywood 2017, wall mounted.

In 2016, Americans are asked to look back to when the nation was great. I remember two public water fountains (at the A & P Grocery Store) with a specific racial reference

Free Speech

Free Speech

Free Speech, 27” x 12” x 4”, painted fabric, carved and painted “Speech”, chain with wooden metallic weight on plywood, wall mounted, 2014

Unlimited money distorts public dialogue; the volume of purchased media outlets quells the freedom of speech.

Burgeoning,

Burgeoning,

22" x 8' x 10’, found match box cars, plywood, liquid nails, & caulk, floor installation, 2014

I see Burgeoning as a suggestion that the natural landscape is invaded by a pestilence of cars. The entire surface of the sculpture is composed of the small cars. Considering contemporary American urban freeways, the ubiquity of vehicles in traffic appears as swarms of insects. Continuing the metaphor of adult automobiles to toys, match box cars pour forth from a rupture on the surface like a volcano spewing magma of vehicles.

Demeter

Demeter

74" x 38" x 18", found toy cars mounted on carved wooden form, wall mounted, 2013

Demeter is the ancient Greek goddess associated with the agriculture, fertility of the earth, as well as the cycle of life and death. The contemporary landscape is defined with urban and rural markings. Urban constructions are man-made; similarly, the countryside is altered by the human touch, yet, nature is apparent. The poetic impact of Demeter can be seen outside the city by the lines of crops delineating growth, the gift of this goddess, in myth, the teacher of the cultivation of grain. In irony, the Rorschach face emerges scarred with grooves of cars; an earth marred by a season of waste and careless placement-a harvest of negligence.

Stack

Stack

38"x 24" x 24", found toy cars, steel frame, caulk, paint on fiber and wood, 2013

There is irrationality in contemporary public discourse. Vehicles employing petroleum based energy production are destructive to the environment. With toy matchbox cars (found objects) attached with industrial adhesives on a plywood and metal core, I make sculptures using motifs derived from popular culture (comic strip bombs) ironically questioning the extent of the freedom to use gasoline as a transport fuel source

his Church,

his Church,

An installation of found dominos and fabricated toy parts, 12” x 8” x 6” (size varies with installation, the stacked dominos can collapse), 2012

In his Church, the work considers that men seem to dominate the governance of spiritual institutions, perhaps to their detriment.

Statement about “Dominos”

In popular culture, dominoes are played not only as a board game but they become metaphorical. As a child, I remember the “cold war” jargon for the red scare (the insidious progress of communism) where independent democracies fall like dominoes as this red tide of oppression tumbles governments.

In my sculptures, dominoes placed one on top of another are precarious; they can slip and collapse. Though the stack is not very tall, the vertical pile does provide tension. A viewer does not want to disturb the balance once he/she realizes the individual dominoes are not attached to each other. The top piece, which is a toy or a modification of a toy-like form, provides a context. The irony of toys, the child’s vehicle for make-believe, used to suggest troubles in the grown-up world is not lost.

us-Red/Blue, found dominos and fabricated parts, 30” x 10” x 10” (size varies with installation, the stacked dominos can collapse), 2012

us-Red/Blue, found dominos and fabricated parts, 30” x 10” x 10” (size varies with installation, the stacked dominos can collapse), 2012

An installation of found dominos and fabricated toy parts, 12” x 8” x 6” (size varies with installation, the stacked dominos can collapse), 2012

The use of dominos with a precarious balance is us-Red/Blue. The pronoun “us” becomes the symbolic term of the United States complete with a map of the country poised atop a 30 inch or so stack of colored plastic dominos. The primary political parties in the US are Republicans and Democratics, red and blue respectively. The governmental dialogue between the two poles of persuasion is tenuous if existing at all, a metaphor presented in the work.

Family Farm

Family Farm

An installation of found dominos and fabricated toy parts, 12” x 8” x 8” (size varies with installation), 2012

In the United States, the small farm owned by an individual is being consumed by a corporate entity motivated by investment profits more than sustainable agricultural processes.

Predator

Predator

An installation of found dominos and fabricated toy parts, 12” x 8” x 8” (size varies with installation)

Childhood is a collection of successive experiments ever expanding the perception of the individual. An exploitive intimate intervention disrupts the stability of constructive layering of experiences for children.

Domino House

Domino House

14 inches tall (varies with installation), found wooden dominos and miniature house and landscape pieces, 2012

Houses are not just buildings but containers of memories: spaces fraught with joy or anxiety, scenarios of experiences so intimate that they frame the rest of one’s life. Home ownership is a goal for many Americans; it provides security, an emblem of success, or a tool of wealth accumulation. Domino House notes traumatic loss of home via economic crisis foreclosure or bankruptcy. The metaphor of an uncertain foundation of precariously positioned wooden dominos which can slip and collapse is true for so many home owners especially now, as our nation is undergoing a major financial crisis.

River Demons, 24” x 34” x 34”, paint on wood, 2011

River Demons, 24” x 34” x 34”, paint on wood, 2011

“River Demons” appears to have sinister apparitions of natural motifs, leaves morphing into masks peering over water.  Along the Rio Grande, there are clandestine crossings by smugglers moving drugs or illegal immigrants. Waiting just out of sight, they emerge with their cargo of contraband as soon as the Border Patrol launch motors past a bend in the river.

Lucha Libre (Free Wrestling)

Lucha Libre (Free Wrestling)

30” x 18 “ x 11”, mixed media on wood, 2010 (wall mounted)

Lucha Libre (Free Wrestling) is a cultural reference to the struggle between the Mexican and American influence in the border area. The wrestlers of Mexican popular culture (Lucha Libre, Free Wrestling) are costumed in nationalistic colors and seals contending in a prison-art framed diorama. These effigies stand in an imagined area delineated by the recently erected steel wall on the American side; the reinforced frontier designed to keep Mexicans out.

Shrine

Shrine

22" x 8" x 8", mixed media, 2010

“Shrine” refers to contemporary patterns of behavior employed by Mexican drug cartels. “Shrine” employs irony by placing a nostalgic vintage postcard with a traditional scene of a zocalo (cathedral square) with peasants in fiesta dress supported by a pile of white dust (cocaine can form white pile). Kidnapping is a source of revenue for idle cartel enforcers. To verify to a family that a relative has been detained, a severed finger of the victim is sent with the ransom request. The vitrine surrounding the postcard and the stand are Mexican handicraft items consistent with the notion, Hecho en Mexico (Made in Mexico), which is the label placed on all exported products. The fingers are mixed media constructions from kid gloves.

Bordered Water

Bordered Water

Painted, carved and constructed wood, 7 “x 6” x 6”, 2010

My chosen black surface for water carries with it an ambiguous, obscure or illusive reading. Its darkness suggests murkiness; therefore, is its depth shallow or deep or is its quality clean or polluted? The inference for water colored black can be described as powerful and frightening. Any of these descriptions can apply to the Rio Grande. I like the paradox of suggesting that a wooden fence (like those sold at Home Depot) could contain the force of water. I see the Rio Grande in terms of this metaphor. For ten years, I lived and worked near the Rio Grande, the brownish green strip of flowing water that divides countries, cultures, families, and landscapes.


Weed, 6" x 12" x 12", paint on wood 2007

Weed, 6" x 12" x 12", paint on wood 2007

Weeds are the ubiquitous plants of a locality; in another area, the same species are prized for their uniqueness.  They are exotic. “Weed” looks like a square of sod; however, the blades of grass are infiltrated with alien plants.  Not really the same as the rest, these not-so-similar growths have leaves like human appendages. They are weeds.

Nopale con Espinas (Cactus Pad with Thorns)

Nopale con Espinas (Cactus Pad with Thorns)

12" x 60" x 30" paint on wood 2005

The nopale or cactus pad is ubiquitous in south Texas. The indigenous population has a magical regard for the spiritual; appearances of forms can change. So it is with my interpretation of the nopale. It becomes a weapon. The view from the upper portion of the country of the southmost border is a mirage of vulnerability. There is a compulsion to fortify this space.

Conejos y Zanahorias

Conejos y Zanahorias

(Rabbits and Carrots), 10.5” x 30” x 24”, installation of brass, welded steel & cast aluminum (found materials) with ceramic, 2009

Conejos y Zanahorias” is an installation of found and constructed objects. On regular forays to a local flea market (La Pulga), I discover things which piqued my interest as containing a unique reflection of the time. The cast brass bunnies, cast aluminum alligator and welded cage were such finds. By situating the metal pieces in a shaped field of constructed colored, ceramic carrots in the outline of the United States, I realize that, as a grouping, they communicate political issues related to immigration from below the southern border. To my perception, this movement of people is fueled by economics: the need to pay rent, to buy food and clothing, and to pay for school (in Mexico, there are fees for educating children).

Dead Man

Dead Man

20” x 24” x 62”, installation of painted wooden modules, 2005

The nopal, cactus pad, can be seen as an appendage, a human hand in the mysticism of the Valley of Texas. I see memorials on the roadside with plastic flowers and dedications to remind the passer-by the fate of an individual. What if the endless outcroppings of cactus plants which form textured mounds on the flat surface of the Southwest chaparrals (wild open fields) were also markers of the dead. Persons long lost to some undisclosed accident.

Large Car Bomb

Large Car Bomb

70” x 34” x 34” (Bomb 32” x 34” x 34”), found match-box cars on plywood and metal core and caulk and fiber, 2013

There is irrationality in contemporary public discourse. Vehicles employing petroleum based energy production are destructive to the environment. With toy matchbox cars (found objects) attached with industrial adhesives on a plywood and metal core, I make sculptures using motifs derived from popular culture (comic strip bombs) ironically questioning the extent of the freedom to use gasoline as a transport fuel source