Shields/Shadows

Fawick Gallery, Baldwin Wallace University (2017). 

The idea of beauty is central to my work. Especially in precarious times, I believe that beauty must be understood as something that both needs to be protected, as well as something that we can cultivate to protect ourselves. There is inherent worth, humanity and compassion in the articulation and apprehension of beauty, encounters that grant us moments of transcendence and connection. 

In Shields/Shadows, my sculptures are diaphanous: they hold the memory of sharp objects that have been tied into them. Neither stiff or hard, they are flexible and mobile, expressing an unusual metaphor for protection. They are colored to enhance contrasts, by placing bright, intense centers and edges against complex, earthy grounds. Their surface references skin, and their scale signals parts of the human body that are currently under assault: our hearts, our minds, our sexual and cultural liberties and identities. In addition, these sculptures cast shadows, which act as metaphors, too. Although shadows are illusory, they have substance: many things that need protection need to be hidden, while many things that exist in the shadows need to be illuminated. 

Shadows were the genesis for related drawings, that were further developed by copying elements from botanical illustrations. The merest seed or leaf conveys infinitesimal pleasure and intricacy, which I interrogate in the drawings and felted pieces, with various marks and gestures in pencils and thread. 

The felted pieces combine elements of both the sculptures and drawings: supple, embellished fields surrounding sculpted centers. Called "soft targets," they are evidence that delicate, sensitive things are at risk, but can also thrive, summon our attention, and transform our perspective. Perhaps such transformations become opportunities for, or symbols of, critical resiliency as well. 

Photo credits, Jerry Birchfield