"Untitled"

1995 -1998. 18" x 18 1/2". Oil pastels on paper.
This piece was inspired by my own bad teeth... granted they are not this bad, but i have always had problems with them no matter how much i brush or floss... it is just the "hand " i was dealt. So i exaggerated the situation considerably and worked on the piece for almost 3 years. i love the contrast between the horrific image and the rich colors.

"CHAD"

1995. 10" x 10"? Wood, screws, henges, and oil paint.
Chad is one of my closest friends... you can always count on him for a goofy look. i created this sort of shrine-like box which houses a painting of one of his classic looks.

"Like Flies on a Windowsill (Fear of Insignificance)"

1994. 4' x 8 1/2'. Mixed media.
i had read an article about John and Jane Does in New York City and the process that happens before disposing of the body and i became fascinated by the idea of dying unnoticed. So i made some phone calls to the Washington State Patrol, Missing/Unidentified Persons Unit and i talked to an officer there and told him i was working on a project for school... he answered some questions and sent me a copy of the packet that they have to fill out every time they come across an unidentified person. i thought about what it must be like to die and to have no one notice that you are gone... it must be much like the flies in the corners of my windowsill (which says a lot about how often i clean my windowsill) only i did notice them but i didn't care. The similarity here is that they both have a feeling of insignificance to them. Hence the title and the piece.

"Like Flies on a Windowsill (Fear of Insignificance)"

Here you see the three individual windows. Each painted a different color to represent different "homes" or separate "lives"... but they all share the same windowsill which bonds the three separate windows. Each window frames a different sheet from the Unidentified Persons Packet. One is the cover sheet which gives you the date, name of the Coroner, investigating Law Enforcement Agency and the case # for both, a check list, etc. In the second window is the Physical Discriptors sheet which asks for different descriptions of the body... blood type, tattoos, identifiable scars, hair color, etc. The third window holds the Body Condition and Status of Parts sheet which asks if the recovered remains are Well Preserved, Decomposed/Burned, or Skeletal. Then it asks what parts of the body were or were not recovered. And in the corners of all three windows are little piles of dead flies, but upon closer investigation you find that the flies are actually little wire people... representative of unclaimed bodies.

"Like Flies on a Windowsill (Fear of Insignificance)"

Here is a close up of the wire "fly" people.
i, with the help of my friend Tiffany Tessada, created over 300 of these wire figures.
i found it interesting that people were stealing these "flies"... people would actually come to me and tell me that the took some. Somehow that was flattering to me.

"Betrayal"

1993. 11' x 1 1/2'.

Wood, glass, and bird seed.
People weren't sure if this was an art piece or a science experiment.The idea here was that its cruel to do this to animals, but people betray each other often and rarely think twice about it... is that okay? i'm not certain if this was a successful piece, but i do enjoy the image.

"Severed Head on a Pike"

1993. 11 1/2' tall. 140 pounds. Welded metal, steel pipes, and a steel rod.
It took many attempts to finish this piece... i came across many problems in creating the Head.
i finally decided to treat the metal almost as if it were clay... i first "drew" some features with forged and welded metal strips. Then i filled in the gaps with pieces of metal that i heated up and welded on... layer upon layer until i got the look that i wanted. i wanted the Head to look as though it were roughed-up before being severed, so i gave it a broken nose and a fat lip and i cut off one of the ears, then i used welding rods to sew the eyes and mouth shut. Before closing up the Head entirely, i used a cutting torch and cut away some of the underlying layers to reduce the weight. For the top of the pike i used a solid steel rod and came at it with a cutting torch... which both tappered it and created a look of having chunks of brain on the pike. After creating the piece, i then installed it at the main entrance to the Art Dept. the night before prospective art professors were coming to give slide presentations of their work and interviews for various teaching positions. The severed head stood standing for the entire week of interviews. Later i sold it to the owners of the UP & UP bar in downtown Bellingham, WA... and to my knowledge it is still there.

"Critiquing Pricks"

1993. Chicken wire, paper-mache', plaster, paint, painting easel, and mirror.
i do not remember the dimensions of this piece, but the pricks stood about 4 feet high. This was an installation piece at the no longer existing The Fresh & Snappy Gallery, the pricks are looking at a mirror on an easel. The mirror represents a piece of art and as the viewer stands behind either of the two side pricks and looks into the mirror he/she will see a reflection of the other prick. If the viewer stands behind the center prick and looks into the mirror he/she will see a reflection of him/herself and the center prick. Basically, the viewer is the critiquing prick. This piece received very mixed reviews... i loved it.

"Bike Ride"

1993. 4' x 6 1/2'. 1 Raleigh bicycle for boys and 1 Schwinn bicycle for girls.
This was a fun piece. The bikes were dismantled then put back together to represent their appropriate genders. This piece is made completely from the parts of these two bikes, with the exception of some additional welding. If you can't figure it out... it's two people screwin'.

"Raven"

1993. 2' x 3 1/2'. Chicken wire, wood, plaster, paper-mache', and paint.
The piece is created proportionately correct except that it is more than twice the size of an actual raven, but when placed at a distance from the viewer the eye is fooled and the viewer sees a very large bird.

"Raven"

1993. Detail.
Up close it is a crude looking piece, but very effective. Again, this was another piece that was not meant to be viewed in a gallery (in fact, would not work in a gallery setting). People are expecting to see art when they go into a gallery... the mind is prepared for it, but when they are just going about their daily routines... they are much more vulnerable.

"Father & Son"

1993. 7" x 7 1/2". Bronze.
There were quite a few bronze pieces that i made during my years at WWU... this one was always my favorite.

Gorilla Series

1992. 13" x 10". Lithography prints.
i have always been intrigued by gorillas.

Gorilla Series

1992. 13" x 10" Color lithography print.
"Red Gorilla" and "Blue Gorilla" . Just took two that i liked and added color.

"Untitled"

1992. 11' x 33' x 23' . Bead foam, fabric, monofilament, and fish hooks.
Unofficially subtitled Suspended Baby, the idea here is that from the moment we are born Life begins to snag us with Her hooks. The piece shows us the painful side of living, but it also gives us a sense of our adaptability to Life's "snags" with the dream like positioning of the Baby.

"Untitled" detail

The baby was suspended at about 5 1/2 feet off the floor and as the viewer walked around the baby he/she had to constantly be aware of the monofilament... ducking underneath it or stepping over it... Life being as difficult to watch as it is the live.

"Sniper"

1992. 3' x 3 1/2'. Chicken wire, wax, fabrics, and foam.
The idea behind this piece was to use a "scare tactic" to get people to evaluate their lives. Our lives can be altered or ended at any given moment, are we wasting our time going after careers that other people want us to go after or are we just afraid to take a chance on uncertainty, etc.

This was a piece that pushed the limits of censorship. i tried getting this piece approved for install through proper channels... i talked to the Head of Maintenance Dept to discuss safety issues and i even talked to the heads of the Psychology Dept to discuss possible reactions from the viewing audience -- both positive and negative. A meeting was called by the Dean of Students, which i was not invited to, and they decided to do nothing... approve or disapprove... they left me hanging. A year later i'm close to graduating and i still had no shot of my piece installed... so i went ahead and installed it, albeit on a different roof top (one with an unlocked access, but that soon changed).

"Sniper"

Here you see how the piece was place on the roof top... from below it looks as if there is a ledge that the Sniper is leaning against, but actually it is a flat roof... which made for an easy install. Mount the Sniper to a wooden base and then add weight ontop of the base. Roof damage was one of the concerns for the Head of Maintenance Dept. i presented him with detailed drawings to assure him that there would be no damage... still no one would give authorization to install my piece.

"Sniper" detail

i covered the piece with wax so that the figure would be more silhouetted against the afternoon sky light, therefore making it harder to distinguish whether or not it was a real person on the roof... it proved to be quite effective. Me and my then photographer, Godot Guitterre, set the piece up, shot it and went to lunch... on our way back we were met by one of the Art Dept secretaries, she was all in a huff because apparently the campus security and the police had been informed of the piece and were none too happy. i was forced to take it down immediately.

"Spider"

1992. 2 1/2' x 5 1/2'. 90 lbs. Welded metal and birch wood.
This is the first sculpture piece that i ever made. Once i saw what i had created and the idea of taking those thoughts that run around in my head and turning them into 3 dimentional realities for others to deal with had sunk in... it was a true epiphany. i knew then that i would make sculptures for the rest of my Life.