Christmas Tree as Monument

Defining monument as a form of memorial erected to remember something worthy of notation, I have been considering and toying with the potential for the Christmas tree to act as a medium to point to the impermanent monument. The tree, when real versus artificial, is a time-sensitive object that decays quickly in comparison to other objects prone to dilapidation. The season in which the tree is erected as a monument to Christ is also brief in the scope of the entirety of the year. The potential the artificial tree holds to show dilapidation is explosive. The use of light and reflective ornament in embellishing the tree show the ephemeral: the reflections in the objects are changing constantly as the outer surroundings constantly change. Many ornaments on trees are uniquely personal- small monuments to events such as baby's first Christmas and ornaments dedicated to the deceased. The monument of the tree is also surround by ritual and correlating sound. Both ritual and sound are commonly associated with memorial and monument.

Text Works versus Monument

A great difference exist between two bodies of work I have been creating this past year.

For my text works, I have struggled to discuss them in context of visual art because they are more in the trajectory of prose, poetry, and the liberal arts. The use of visual elements are not to create discussion on text as art but rather to emphasize the meaning of the prose and poetry.

The monument and object works function more in the space of sculpture and installation art. Their concern of what is precious links them to my text works. However, the monument and object works also address the issues of time and space, the inseparable two. These works have a physical presence that questions and confronts while the text works use the space of the brain to confront and question the viewer.

Pictured is a text work titled Reflection. This prose resulted from reflecting while staring at mausoleums reflections in the body of water adjacent to Wade Chapel in Lake View Cemetery. Lake View Cemetery is a Victorian cemetery located in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the home of the Garfield Monument and Rockefeller monument.

Destruction/ Construction

Through constant exposure to construction and destruction in University Circle, this impermanence of architectures and city scape are inspiration to my work. Seeing buildings erected and old buildings demolished illustrates the temporal nature of existence. The University Circle district and the Euclid Corridor are going through a multitude of changes and additions. Inevitably, being part of this transforming area results in inspiration and influence on my artistic practice.

Works in Progress

Recently, I have been experimenting with text and name in visual art. These tests are work that I plan on submitting for different call for artists. The text work is the future beyond my proposed BFA project. The name lingers even after our bodies and souls leave the world. Life is fleeting but name has permanence on grave stones and in friends and family. Below are a few shots of test pieces using text and name.

Progress on Clay "Petals"

These are some shots of the clay "petals" I've been working on as a component of my proposed BFA project. I say "petals" because they very loosely represent a flower petal. Their action, though, is that of the flower petal. The unfired clay breaks down in the rain. The existence of the petal is just as fleeting as that of a flower's petal.

Model Building and Sculpture Process

A necessary skill that I find extremely lacking at the CIA is the usage of thumbnail sketches and model building in preparation for paintings, drawings, and sculpture. For my BFA project, I have been spending a wealth of hours drawing architectural plans for the sculpture I will be building. Recently, I have moved onto the next stage of my process for this work. One rough model has been constructed and I am now preparing to produce two more models, both of which will be a bit cleaner and more exact than the first. All are built to an one seventh scale of the actual size of the proposed sculpture.

Below are images of the first model. It is constructed of a Styrofoam tape. It was a quick build and has helped me visualize the structure more clearly.

Site and Meaning

The site for my BFA installation is crucial to the meaning of the work and the effectiveness of the work. I have toyed with different spots around the exterior of the Gund Building of the Cleveland Institute of Art. Spending a good wealth of hours tracing the spaces around the front entrance of the CIA's Gund Building and the Sculpture Garden off of the Student Lounge, I didn't feel as though I had found the right place. The Gund Building is too directed in its audience and far from a neutral ground. The history of the building and the Cleveland Institute of Art are tied together deeply. Their ties limit the audience to CIA alum, students, and staff. My subject of passing time, transitory states, and precious moments would be in conflict with themes of education and academics inherit to the Gund Building.

I recently came across a small, run-down cemetery on East 118th in the University Circle District of Cleveland, Ohio. The East Cleveland Township Cemetery is a volunteer run cemetery that is working to restore the monuments and grandeur that have eroded with time and neglect. The visible signs of passing make this cemetery an ideal spot for my BFA. There is a common green area that offers the space I need for my outdoor structure. I am excited to learn more about the cemetery and hopefully aid in the restoration of the cemetery.

Clay Studies of Dying flower.

The following images are document of flower petal studies modeled as an actual flower died in my studio. The petal looks at the dying flower of the vanitas in a different manner than the whole of the flower.

Clay plays important roles in art devoted to death and loss. I am interested in clay for its quality of coming from the earth and when un-fired returning back to the earth over time.

Experiment: Hourglass

These images show a two box set-up with sand that requires viewer interaction and last for a certain duration of time. Like an hourglass, the sand moves from the top to the bottom, but only with the involvement of the viewer. In the seventeenth century Dutch vanitas, the hourglass is a common symbol for fleeting time and impermanence.

Inspiration: Ghost Stroller

A mysterious stroller has been making its way around the streets of Brooklyn, New York over the past couple of months. It was first in August that a baby stroller, painted completely in a white reminiscent of stone monuments, first appear chained to a street post. Tucked inside this stroller was three plastic roses that suggest memorializing and loss of a young child. The artist of this piece is unknown but the conversations sparked by the piece on death and art itself has been spreading widely.

For me, this piece is about as close to perfection as I've seen. It is shrouded in mystery and consistently brings up deep conversation on death and memorial.

New York Times Article

ABC News Video

Transitional Periods- Quick Notes on my proposed BFA project

Loss and mortality are inevitable aspects of life beyond human escape. Life has a certain brevity to it, and some aspects of life have an even shorter brevity to them. For example, we spend a scant few years as a toddler and only slightly more in teenage rebellion and bliss. However, what I am concerned with is the brevity of formal education.

This summer I began to realize that I will no longer have the structure formal education has provided for me consistently for the past seventeen years of my life. This loss of structure and agenda that formal education provides requires me to learn a completely new structure to manage life.

To come to terms with the death of formal education in my life, I have been planning an installation for my BFA taking inspiration from the seventeenth century Dutch vanitas still-life painting tradition. In a vanitas, objects such as the skull, flower, fruit, and blown out candle come to symbolize the transience of life and its fleeting moments while pointing out the problems of earthly pleasures and other such vanities.

In addition to changes and losses to the structure of my personal life, the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) is also undergoing changes to its structure and losses as well. Recently, after a period of twelve years, David Deming resigned as president of the CIA. This loss has brought about a change in our president, who is now Grafton Nunes.

Another recent change is the switch from a five year program to a four year program at the CIA. This transition has required major and sometimes drastic changes to the structure of the curriculum. Examples of such problem areas include the notion of major day in the Visual Arts and Technologies Environment (VAT) and a re-organizing of classes that then must be taken by all VAT students of certain years.

Physical structures are also facing change and loss at the CIA. The Joseph McCullough Building (aka the Factory) has been renovated over the past year and a half. The plan for campus unification means a new building will be built right next to the Factory on Euclid Avenue. However, this new building means a loss of the George Gund Building on East Boulevard. The Gund Building is perfectly situated in University Circle, walking distance from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), the Botanical Gardens, and the Natural History Museum. To lose this location is truly sad and beyond unfortunate for future and current students at the CIA.

I find many of these changes to be negative and feel as though they are terrible losses for future students. With this installation project I aim to offer a sort of memorial for said losses to students like myself, saying a good-bye to the CIA that we grew to come and love.

Inspiration: Monument to a Lost Glove

This is an installation work by the Russian born, American artist Ilya Kabakov. The work consists of a red plastic woman's glove on the floor surrounded by nine engraved metal music stands arranged in a semicircular fashion. Each stand is engraved with a poem written by fictional woman who have seen this red glove and been inspired by it. The work was created in 1996 in Lyon, France and later recreated as a public art piece on the corner of Broadway and 23rd Street in New York.

Ilya Kabakov's intent for the work was to resurrect the lost art of eulogy, sonnet, and epigraph once highly valued from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, before the rise of the iron age, the twentieth century. The rather ordinary red glove becomes an extremely loaded symbol of poetic values and form.

Special thanks to artist Sarah Kabot for directing me to this piece. Sarah Kabot is an Assistant Professor in Drawing and Foundation at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, OH.

Happenings in the Studio

Lately, the studio has become a research lab in addition to a production facility. The heavy amount of research and planning involved with my BFA project has lead to books and journals of notes rivaling paintings and sketches. In fact, most sketches are indeed there as studies for my BFA project and the ideas involved in said project. I feel quite pleased with the bounty of information I have gathered and have such excitement toward my BFA work.

One wall of the space has been devoted to watercolor sketches and other types of drawing and photography. These include sketches for research projects at Euclid Creek Reservation. The opposite wall has word maps that try connected two ideas of interest: vanitas still-life painting and small urban spaces.

Updated Artist Statement

The interaction of the viewer in a selected space defines my work. A selected space is the site of installation. How the viewer interacts with the space is a result of the space selected for installation and the objects selected to be installed in said space. Without the movement and recognition of movement of the viewer’s body in the selected space, the work is incomplete. The site of installation, the interaction of the viewer, and the realization of how the viewer moves in a space together form the holistic work of art.

The selected space dictates what object or objects are situated within to elicit interaction from the viewer. Additionally, the selected space also dictates how the viewer can interact through its architecture and cubic space. Space is the foundation to any of my works and the controlling factor of each of my works. Once a space is selected, the interaction and objects of interaction are able to follow.

The variation of selected spaces is open and vast. Why a space is selected and how it controls the piece is dependent on each particular space or the conditions of said space. One piece may examine loss and memento mori while another piece may discuss small urban spaces and public parks. The subject of the work stems from the actual selected space.

While the subject of the work may vary, the constant factor is the concept of the control that a space has over its objects and our interactions with them. To an extent, my work is formulaic: there is a selected space and things placed in the space to interact with. The outcome or subject of the formula changes when the space selected and objects of the space change. These changes allow the viewer to become aware of how their body and their movement are influenced by the space and environments around them.

*****The process of writing artist statements is one of flux for me. They tend to change often and get revisited often. However, this statement is the most flexible one I've written and can be applied to most if not all of the work I have produced in the past 1.5 to 2 years. Still, this statement will change with time but not as rapidly or as dramatically as before.

Progress, New Inspiration

These past two weeks have been a duration of note taking and researching small urban spaces and outdoor green areas in urban and suburban environments. Much has been learned and much inspiration gathered. I am now fully aware of what design elements are essential in crafting inviting small green spaces and public spaces that promote lingering and activity. This knowledge will be used as I progress in a series of "art-works" in the Euclid Creek Reservation of the Cleveland Metro-parks.

Also, I have recently been looking at the work of artist Richard Long.

Inspirations: Harmen de Hoop and Anish Kapoor

Lately, I have been really looking at and getting ideas for future pieces from two artists in particular. Both Anish Kapoor and Harmen de Hoop are heavily influencing me and my ideas for this upcoming semester. What draws me to both of the artists is the role and necessary participation of the audience.

Harmen de Hoop




Anish Kapoor

Currently Reading

The latest book in my library is The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard. I am extremely excited for this newest addition to my personal library. I have only heard outstanding recommendations concerning this book and feel blessed to now have it in my collection.

Also, I recently finished reading through two books, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space and The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art. I highly recommend Brian O'Doherty's Inside the White Cube. It is a very informative, accessible, and critical text for any one interested in the gallery space and curative practices. However, The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art is not so highly recommended. Buskirk's overly complex writing results in a wordy mess. Her examples are thorough and well described, but the arguments are hard to follow at times. A mediocre read- slightly disappointed.

Inspiration: Shinichi Agawa and Associates

Stunning, clean line contemporary architecture by Shinichi Agawa and Associates. Amazing use of light to add maximum impact to minimal structures. Brilliant open floor plans perfect for kinetic movement between spaces.

Shinichi Agawa and Associates


Hill House



Minimalist House

Inspiration: Katherine Kaminski

Through the internet, I have come across many interesting artists and projects. One particular installation of artist Katherine Kaminski caught my eye recently. This installation titled I Keep You Here to Stare At You When No One is Looking masterfully guides the viewer to look through a certain point to experience a brilliantly crafted world.







Katherine Kaminski

Inspiration: Jan Maarten Voskuil

These works by Jan Maarten Voskuil really excite me. The Netherlands' artist truly activates the spaces of the gallery with these warped geometric objects/ sculptures. In particular I find the work that engages the floor, the corners, etc. excellent in terms of incorporating the structural assets of the "white cube" (gallery).

Currently Reading

The most recent books I've been reading are Inside The White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space penned by Brian O'Doherty and The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art authored by Martha Buskirk. These writings are part of my research on installation art and the gallery for my upcoming BFA thesis at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Eva Hild: Ceramic Artist

Although I tend to call myself a painter, I will openly admit to having a scandalous relationship with ceramics. The feel of the clay, the physicality of the medium, the creation of objects, and the pure sensation of being pulled into clay all just light my fire. This said, the work of Eva Hild further drives me to my sensual affair with clay. Her ceramics sculptures are just stunning.

Eva Hild

New Work

These three paintings add color to the monochrome through the shadows between the panel and the white exhibition wall. The panel's front consist of table salts embedded in layers of polymer resin. The backs are painted in fluorescent colors- one orange, one yellow, and one pink. These colors call attention to the space between the panel and the exhibition wall. This physicality of space and theatricality of the work are issues that continue to have relevance since they were prompted by the essay Art and Objecthood. Important to note, these works must be exhibited on a crisp, clean white wall to be viewed properly. The condition of the white wall is an imperative aspect of the work.

BMW Art Cars

A link to the complete collection of BMW art cars done by renown artists including Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, and Olafur Eliasson. One day I would love the honor of creating an art car for BMW.

BMW Art Car Collection

This idea is particularly interesting to me because the dynamic of the art car changes when it is being raced. The conditions of the work then are either idle or charged. The art on the car masterly comes to life under the conditions of driving. This condition based work is something I am experimenting with in my own work. However, my conditions remain more specific to site versus kinetics.

Currently Reading

Continuing to expand my knowledge, I have recently been reading some very informative essays and writings on reductive/ objective art. Some of the essays recently read include: Situational Aesthetics by Victor Burgin, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art by Sol LeWitt, and Beware by Daniel Burren.

Summer Studio Space and Work in Progress

During the summer months, my studio is located at my home rather than the CIA. A summer set-up is necessary if I plan to produce work during the summer months. Below is a image of my summer studio space set-up. Also, there is an image of work in progress- the glow series.

Images From My Final Crit