Noise is an aspect of what we in recent decades dubbed the “information age.”  Noise, in the form of audible and visual expression, has become ambient, numbing, and often invasive - not a matter of taking media time for reading, viewing, and listening, but a characteristic of a omnipresent visual and audible background of amplification.

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I root much of my work in recognizing the problem of knowledge and understanding in a culture and environment so laden with voices. Despite the prevalence of digital forms, I use analog, physical materials to allow traces of process and content to be evident.  My paper works are woven from preprinted papers that have been run through a shredder or sliced by hand - recombined into patterns of text, color, image fragments, and the texture of the weaving pattern.  Once the paper is complete, images are layered over them through printing and chine collé collage.  Cutaway silhouettes and designs are also employed.  The acts of redaction, obscuring, layering, and masking are visible in ways that are often rendered invisible in digital products. 

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In contrast, I also carve and cast sculptures of everyday objects, animals, and people.  These sculptural works are more direct, even when they wear the pattern of wood grain, marks of carving, polychromed colors, or applied patterns or text. The carvings themselves are simple, isolated, and intended to tug at the context of their surroundings with a still and silent presence only sculptural figuration achieves.

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In both formats of work, the suggestion of meanings withheld or blocked is emphasized through isolated forms and entangled patterns.  As an artist attentive to linguistic structures and the influence of language on a person’s basic assumptions, I look for ways to present images relevant to the problem of understanding and shared meaning in an environment and culture that stresses speech over reception and rights over responsibilities.

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