I believe the most interesting riddles in life are ones about how people get along. I carry these questions throughout my work. In the last 20 years as an artist I’ve created work around mental health issues, neighborhoods, sport, play and knots with a continuous thread of exploring how people make and sustain connections.
In my exhibition “Team Spirit” at the Duluth Art Institute in 2016 I overlapped two devices people use to create relationships. One cosmetic and one sport. I distilled essential oil from shredded baseball gloves to create cologne. Another piece in that show combines the connections of a communal locker room shower and the sport of hockey by painting the image of the shower on the rubber floor mats used in hockey arenas.
As a teacher I am aware of some of the barriers in student learning and I am currently developing a body of work to address this idea. I am working with the wooden tops of desks as surfaces for my work. They describe two perspectives. The images on the top of the desks are only part of the story. The bottoms carry underlying anxieties and hidden truths with chewed gum and scratched graffiti.
I am continuing to find new works and projects based around the theme of connection and human relationship.
