Renaissance
Argus
Drift
Paradigm
Raven
Alterity
This series works toward creating a map of human experience that traces the intersections between diverse cultures, as well as the roles of self and other in the creation of a perceived social reality. It examines the ways cultural phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition, constructing a sense of Alterity, or otherness, bonding one group together to the exclusion of all others.
My love of craft, and wood carving in particular, leads me to illustrate these ideas through the lens of world carving traditions, ranging from the indigenous carvers of the Northwest Coast to Europeean chip carving.
More images on Flickr →
Fixed Landscape 1
Fixed Landscape
Human beings are natural pattern-seekers. We try to impose an order on everything we see. Ornament springs from this need for order. Vines become ornamental flourishes, trees are turned into doric columns.
Ornament in modern times has been seen purely as decoration, with no overt meaning or social message. It does, however, have a language and a grammar for its use, often quite complex with strict mathmatical formula.
My work is ornamental in that there's an underlying language and grammar to my compositions. There are rules that are hard to explain: a line can't go in a particular direction. A composition has to have so much awkward tension. The Fixed Landscape series uses this sense of ornament to explore real and imagined landscapes, combining traditional ornamental styles with topographical symbols to create a new language of terrain and our place within it.
More images on Flickr →
Ampersand 1
Ampersand 2
Ampersand
I'm fascinated with typography. As an undergrad, I studied cognitive linguistics, and how different writing systems utilize different parts of the brain.
The ampersand originated as the Latin word 'et,' meaning 'and.' Over time it was condensed into a symbol, and the word 'et' became the logograph '&.' A logograph symbolizes an entire word, while letters in the alphabet represent sounds.
Ampersands uses the dual nature of this character as a symbol of the dual nature of language and communication.
More images on Flickr →