Artist Statement
The work begins with…
…sifting through forgotten ephemera that had served a specific purpose. I use discarded magazines, pages torn from books, orphaned photos, splintered wood, or tools whose usefulness has been worn down by time. I’m drawn to what carries a visible history, to things that have already once had a life and might be convinced to live again. Because I work across image and sound, the medium is varied and often overlapping. I treat each fragment like a musical note, the techniques are interchangeable instruments, and the final work becomes the score.
My common theme is about dismantling personal and cultural hierarchical systems through the use of mythology and metamodernist oscillations between sincerity and skepticism. Mythological archetypes allow me to question and critique issues about politics, identity, power, belief, and belonging without pretending I am the first to do so. Fluctuating between an ideological modernist view and the cynicism of postmodernism, this interdisciplinary approach enables me to deconstruct the past and consider what has been experienced. I then build narratives into a new aesthetic by assembling disparate objects and images. The resulting works feel like fragments of a longer myth and each piece serves as both artifact and provocation, challenging viewers to reconsider what is overlooked.
I am influenced by Surrealist dreamscapes, Dada assemblages, Fluxus performance art, lowbrow painting, and the glitchy errors occurring in digital and analog art making. I borrow elements from these movements to create a unique artistic language. I am drawn to stories of transformation and the moment in which a person surrenders their previous self and embraces a new form or system. There is value in examining change and I find wisdom by observing the aesthetic of failure and the success of metamorphosis.
“I sense this thing following me.
It is a zeitgeist, ethos, and is heavy in the air.
It’s in every breath, every word, every step.
The oscillation between hope and irony.
The old way doesn’t work anymore.
Maybe it was never meant to work, only tolerated.
It’s built upon the shoulders of greatness
But is also mangled and littered with fragments of history and greed.”
Curriculum Vitae
Selected Exhibitions & Publications
Solo Exhibitions
2016 // Fugue State // Artista Bottega // St. Paul, MN
2015 // History of Security Building // Smallest Museum in Saint Paul // St. Paul, MN
2015 // Gods and Idiophones // Dubliner Pub // St. Paul, MN
2013 // Miscellaneous Debris // Dubliner Pub // St. Paul, MN
2010 // The Elephant Game and Other Delights // Galactic Pizza // Minneapolis, MN
Group Exhibitions
2016 // Tiny Universes // Hudson Hospital & Clinic // Hudson, WI
2016 // Gods and Idiophones: But I Fear I Have Nothing to Give // Unicorn Show 2 // Minneapolis, MN
2015 // Verboten: Only You Can Hear the Lies I Tell // MN State Fair // St. Paul, MN
2015 // Me and What I Could Be // TuckUnder Gallery // Minneapolis, MN
2014 // Artist Arsenal MN presents Tryptophantastic // Junk Love // St. Paul, MN
2014 // Artist Arsenal MN presents All Aboard Green Line Launch Pop-up Gallery // Mediterranean Market // St. Paul, MN
Publications
2022 // Art Director for To Stand Firm Against an Ocean album by Mister December
2022 // Art Director for Fever Dreams and Fire Sweats album by The Old Smugglers
2020 // Art Director for Blood Red Floor album by Mister December
2017 // Art Director for Hard Pan to Chaos album by The Old Smugglers
2015 // Art Director for Aleatorium album by The Old Smugglers
2014 // Art Director for …And When the Madness Passed album by The Old Smugglers
Performance / Music
2019 – Present // Mister December, Singer/ Multi-instrumentalist / Songwriter/ Lyricist
2013 – Present // The Old Smugglers, Singer/ Guitarist/ Various Instruments/ Songwriter/ Lyricist
2002 – 2013 // Two Eyes for the Dead, Guitarist/ Songwriter/ Lyricist
Press
2014 // Tour local artist studios during St. Paul Art Crawl Posted on 08 April 2014 by robwas66 // Saint Paul Monitor // http://www.monitorsaintpaul.com/tour-local-artist-studios-during-st-paul-art-crawl/
2014 // April, St. Paul Monitor, Vol. 39 No. 12 // Tour local artist studios during St. Paul Art Crawl by Tesha M. Christensen, page 1 & 5
2009 // St. Paul Art Crawl: First of three Eggs Posted on April 27, 2009 by Matt Peiken, http://3minuteegg.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/st-paul-art-crawl-first-of-three-eggs/
Education
2006 // BFA, College of Visual Arts