My Work
I make work about our relationships with ordinary objects. Often the objects I focus on are unwanted and discarded by others. I use these objects as a way to challenge our understanding of worn out, useless, and obsolete. After all, things do not cease to exist when they cease to meet our needs and desires.
Sometimes I turn the lens on myself and my own struggles to make informed, intentional decisions about the material world. I replace perfectly useful things, I have more than I need. I use myself as subject partly because I want to understand my own motives, but also because I believe these are issues many others share.
Together we have created a culture of repetitive and conspicuous consumption with disregard to waste. My work encourages that we refuse this, and instead work to create a culture that values objects and the people they connect us to. Simple choices matter: deciding what we need, how we make use of things, and choosing how and when to let go.
Me
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, I helped run a gallery & small project space with several friends. Over the course of four years the gallery transitioned into a studio, and the friends developed into an artist group. Together as Dynamite Family, we hosted events, made collaborative projects, and toured the country visiting other artist spaces and groups.
Currently I'm finishing up my MFA at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Since arriving in Illinois, I've fallen in love, converted an old diesel automobile to run on used cooking grease, supported my wife as she gave birth naturally to our first child, and become a local food cooperative member.