BIO
For a long time I spent my time in the studio making
paintings, sculpting wood with a chain saw and print making. I used
those practices to find a way of expressing my frustrations with
the world and its contradictions. I was also trying to create a style
that was uniquely mine. I wanted a style that could distinguish me
from other artists, and make me famous, rich and free to leave that
factory where I worked for ten years. After achieving that style,
I started to pursue gallery representation.
Several galleries
were interested and I eventually was selling my work around Atlanta
and Charlotte. I was receiving favorable reviews and actually one
museum bought one of my pieces for its collection. This process of
marketing was exciting, but after awhile it lacked any lasting quality.
Galleries would come and go and before I knew it I was back to looking
for representation.
Finally, I realized that I wasn’t commutating
social issues through painting or sculpting. I wasn’t making any
change for my community because of the limitation of my audience.
I wondered why so many fellow workers at the factory didn’t know
what the heck I was doing in my art. All gallery openings for the
most part catered to a certain group, certain class. I could see
the evolution of my work but, where was the evolution of audience?
I started to question why some people (fellow
factory worker) were not aware of the art world and its glamour.
I shifted the direction of my thinking about the role of audience
and started collaborating with school children, fellow factory workers
and the public in general. I worked in a factory for ten years and
for the most part never really shared my studio practice until close
to the end of working there. I eventually started showing my work
to those at the factory who operated fork trucks and worked on assembly
lines. I started inviting my fellow workers to openings. Collaborating
with my friends at the factory allowed fresh ideas, new possibilities
to come into the work. It allowed a new audience to witness my work,
through their involvement.
"Every human being is an artist, a
freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping
the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and condition
our lives"
Joseph Beuys
