Just Scratchng the Surface

What lies just beneath the surface begs consideration in the form of awareness, acknowledgement, care, understanding, and action. A plowed field is both an actual and metaphoric means to do this, to discover the depths of human endeavors: cultural toleration, historical knowledge, ecological responsibility, self-awareness, and interpersonal communication.

This series began with rusted plow disks from old farm equipment and incorporates the ancient process of gilding with metallic foil. In exploring the original purpose of these objects, I came to revisit their function as metaphor. The result is a cumulative process of rediscovery and multitude of small interactions. It’s from those interactions that we develop all our sensorial relations with the world. All meanings and metaphor, or higher understanding, start from a relationship with actual material.  

This show is the product of investigation completed during my recent sabbatical leave as a tenured faculty member of the University of the Pacific. Paired with my first sabbatical exhibition in 2005, the two serve as book ends to my career at UOP.

The gallery show in 2005 was entitled “Hay, What Have You Done for Me Lately” and proposed that the cultivation of hay was a major turning point in the development of human civilization. The current exhibition once again looks at an aspect of agriculture for creative inspiration and looks to understand more about our individual and collective selves.

The combinations of properties of material influence my inspiration. The exact process comes to me only after I’ve begun to work with the material, from a place deep inside my subconscious.

I’m interested in the raw material of sculpture, the material that it is made from:

The lived body. I’m interested in the result as the cumulative process of discovery and multitude of small interactions. It’s from those interactions that we have all our sensorial relations with the world. All our meanings and metaphors, come from that basis.