The Remains of Our Immortality, Sites 1 and 2

the remains of our immortality: sites 1 and 2.
6’x3’x10” each
mixed media (cardboard, wood glue, jute, scrap wood)

I carved two 6’ long x3’ high reliefs in cardboard. The cardboard came from my work in retail. I decided to make this piece in the style of an archeological expedition, as if our culture were halted today and unearthed in the future –like what had happened in Pompeii. What would people think we valued? What could they tell about our culture based on our relics, our garbage? This was what I was thinking about when I began to undertake this project.

Totem: At the End of the Day

totem: at the end of the day.
2’x2’x6’
mixed media (carved televisions, video, acrylic, plywood)

I formed totem poles from discarded televisions, carving traditional characters into the surface and accenting the detail in acrylic paint. The video in the screens addresses common elements of our human evolution across cultures. I created this piece to emphasize the irony of cultural evolution in which western societies feel that anything else is backward. The symbolism in using outdated televisions emulate the iconic characters used by Northwestern Native American tribes to teach tribal history and protect villages addresses the nature of our current society. Our wastefulness, as well as our passive reliance on convenient media to educate and inform ourselves.

Security: Bear Mines 5308174 and 73287489

security: bear mine 53009174 and bear mine 73287489
2 pieces, 2’x2’x6’ each
mixed media (cast fiber glass, scrap metal, tow-chain, concrete)


More than a year ago, among the releases of information provided by our Department of Homeland Security; was the revelation that the Taliban would be sending bombs disguised as teddy bears in the mail to random American citizens. I visualized the exploding bears, and found it ironic that children will use teddy bears for security, and that water mines are defensive weapons used to secure an area. I decided to create teddy bear water mines in a reaction to the paranoia over terrorism and good/evil in our culture, as well as for the children that are fighting in the wars.

Anytime Minutes

Into the Woods

into the woods.3½’ x 1½’
mixed media (bed sheet, scrap wood, clothing patterns, photo transfer)

This painting was also done on a bed sheet stretched over scrap wood. It evokes the feeling of being lost in the woods through the line usage, and accentuated through the white tree shapes. The line structure comes from a child’s clothing pattern from the 1970s. The teal accents add structural lines, contrasting the forest and a manmade environment. It also includes a photo transfer of two children sleeping in a pile of leaves from the children’s story “Babes in the Wood”.

Little Problem

little problem
18”x12”x4”
mixed media (scrap wood, pigeon poker, oven-bake clay, bee’s wax)


The boxes represent two different situations, one being my perspective of missing a friend amid distractions (in this case material), and the hole before the one character on the right shows them falling into a writhing mass of bodies (self consumption) where there is a skull in the background as a fractured mosaic. Skulls are traditional symbols for mortality. The continuous-line drawn pigeons are done in bloody red. Pigeons are dirty city birds that act pompous and righteous, and the fingers are symbolizing something small, what my friend had referred to as his little problem. This piece came after an argument about the severity of using oxycontin and heroin.

What are we going to do with all the bodies?

I happened to be on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean when Hurricane Katrina made landfall. It was my first experience of a hurricane. Within days it destroyed the poorest area of New Orleans and exposed the world to the persisting race and class divide, unspeakable poverty, neglect, and violence in America. I will never forget seeing photographs dead bodies that were left behind in the streets or strapped to telephone poles by officials as the water retreated.

It made me think of all of the things that elected officials are putting off repairing, much like the levee that broke- year to year. And about how the poorest people are the ones that live in the most dangerous places in these cities, because those with money can move to safety. In the coming years and coming natural disasters and lack of revenue- more structural problems will come to light, just as a roof will cave when leaks aren't repaired.

It just makes you wonder, what are those things that our local governments are putting off repairing till the next years agenda? And what are we going to do with all the bodies?