Armatures and Still Lives

Sculptural work made from 2015 - 2017

This Sculpture Will Change

2017-2019

Acrylic tank, Copper pipe, Water, Copper sulfate, Steel, Pine, Vermont Verde marble, Stainless steel, Solar panel, Wire

This Sculpture Will Change used a 1.5 volt solar panel to generate an electrical current that transfers copper ions from the suspended copper pipe to the tip of a loose wire at the bottom of the tank. The tank was filled with a mix of copper sulfate and water, an aqua blue solution commonly used in industrial copper plating. The electric current flows in the same fractal pattern biological life employs to evenly distribute energy and mass through space. Thus, as time passes, the copper ions being carried by this current pile up in a trace of this invisible flow and form a coral like growth at the tip of the wire. For two years the pipe will decayed while the coral will grew, the Pine bench surface/tank cap silvered and cracked, the steel structure rusted, and the Vermont Verde marble will polish under the shoes of resting observers. A carved channel within the marble levels and keeps the bench in place. The work is permanently installed along the creek at Salem Art Works in upstate New York. The process is complete, the tank has been removed, but the bench remains.

Armature For a Case of Lilies

2017

Water Lilies, Railroad tie, glass, Water, Earth, Silicone, Fluorescent bulb, Computer, Cabinet clasps, Electric wire, Concrete boulder from demolition site, Copper plated found pipe from demolition site, Steel tubing, Rubber feet

The lilies lived for a year.

Still Life

2017

Found tree trunk, Steel, Marble, Pepto-bismol, Pond defoamer, Oil pump, DC supply, Electric wire

Still Life pumped 20 gallons of pepto-bismol up and through the tree trunk until the moisture in the medicine entirely evaporated, leaving behind a cracked memory of the fountain's function.

Armature for a Landscape Painting (Lilies and Pop)

2017

Reclaimed windows, Water, Water lilies, Steel Brackets, Computer, Grow light, Mp3 player, Speakers (30 minute loop of the 100 pop songs of 2016 layered into a single track), Wire, Carriage bolts, Wing nuts, Snail

The Lilies lived for a year.

Armature for a Landscape Painting (oil and water)

2016

Titanium white oil paint, Water, Fish tank, Reclaimed steam bent oak trim, Pudding stone tile, Sangean radio, Electrical wire, FM transmitter, Lichen, Found painting, Vermetidae shell, Audio composition (train running over bridge in Chicago brownlands while barge passes below, hiking the John Muer Trail)

Armature for a Landscape Painting (oil and water) consists of a ten gallon tank filled with water and titanium white oil paint supported by an armature of reclaimed oak steam bent into a sturdy architecture. The oil paint slowly separated into oil and titanium powder over the month long duration of for no space at the Chicago Artist’s Coalition. Over the course of about a month, stalactites and stalagmites constantly released until all powder was on the bottom, and all oil on the top. An FM radio transmitter from the gallery office transmitted the audio composition on a loop which was then picked up by the radio on the armature. Unfortunately the thirteen minute long composition was lost following the theft of a computer, it layered the sounds of birds, trains, barges, and soft banjo music.

Armature for a Landscape Painting (oil and water) was included in my for no space exhibition at the Chicago Artists Coalition in 2016.