Toy-Like
“House Heads” began in my classroom as demonstrations for face casting and hand-building assignments and slowly morphed into this body of work. The face casting process is one of mutual trust and respect between two parties, especially since having plaster applied to ones face can result in a bit of claustrophobia. The resultant casting captures a moment in time much like a 3D photograph. This body of work is “Beyond Familiar” because I have reached outside of my comfort zone, in the past I have primarily utilized my own self-image in my work.
A determined woodpecker has created a grouping of small voids in the side of my house, the intermittent and familiar tap tap tap reminds me is he is trying to make his way inside. Like the woodpecker I seek to portray the reciprocity of an inside/outside relationship as the mouths in my figures are simultaneously closed, but also “pecked” open as if an outside force or entity were trying to make its way inside. The connected string signifies the spreading of knowledge, but also the tangibility of consciousness residing inside, outside and between bodies.
2013-15