We live in a culture unique to this place and time. It is not one of isolation --although the individual is important--but one of globalization. Our culture demands that we take in information from all places around the world, across various times, from multiple viewpoints quickly. Mass media is our new religion. Entertainment has become a need. We survive on kitsch. Within this place and time and circumstance, I have cultivated a craving for departure from reality into a land far, far away. It is where I, and later the viewer, can escape the here and now if only for a short while.

The Concept: Place

Place is the fundamental requirement for existence. Time complements place. One needs a time and place to be, to learn, to remember, to dream and to rant about the world. Art has the ability to function as a departure point for entrance into another, albeit temporary, existence. Step in. Begin the story.

I am a storyteller. I fabricate the scenery in which my personal narrative takes place. For each piece, I make decisions not only based on color and size and composition, but based on what is needed to progress the story. Upon completion I step out. I pull back all my memories, iconography, and personal mythology leaving a setting; a place where someone else is invited to enter and construct their own relationship to the scenery and characters which define the space. With each viewer the story changes.

The Structure: Altarpiece

The altarpiece as a structure does not only have religious connotations. A painting enclosed by doors reminds me of television cabinets, refrigerators, books, flip cellular phones, dollhouses, movie cases, medicine cabinets: the altarpieces of American culture. Objects that engage the viewer, inviting them to open the door, encourageing them to enter into some place else. These are spaces that conceal and reveal. Chance and surprise stimulates voyeuristic curiosity as the story wraps through and around the imagery and forms. The altarpiece structure does not simply become a surface for icons it implies a place, a mind frame, a time that welcomes the devotee into another realm.

The Material: Puzzles

I use jigsaw puzzles as a material not only for their identity as a game or toy, but also for the kitsch imagery it affords me. The images found on puzzles are idealistic places recognized immediately by my audience. Using multiple images, a burst of objects and viewpoints, forces the viewer to make connections and thus begins their own narrative as they journey through the box. Layering and collage create new associations and suggest cinematic-like montage that implies movement and time. Windows and holes open onto new information allowing the story to progress. Forms built from the puzzles echo architecture, further enriching the feeling of place that has already been blatantly manifested on the printed photographic surfaces. Interrupting the mechanically reproduced imagery, paint and mixed media enhance the composition. These altered surfaces compromise the comfort created by the kitschy images. The “drawn” element allows humanistic expression to become part of the experience.

Place is the beginning. Amongst the setting and characters provided, the viewer is responsible for the story. Puzzles provide the link to the kitsch and entertainment ideals of my time and place. I constructed these boxes because I believe it is important to play, to discover, to create. Within the confines of a box, the viewer can journey into the surreal, forget the reality of reality; to sing, to pray, to fail to fulfill curiosity. There is a time and place to be the narrator. You are invited to open the door. Step in. Linger within the imagery and around the forms, exploring and learning as you choose. Dwelling inside another place and then after awhile stepping away---altered.