statement

I have been awed by power plants, factories and storage tanks since I was a child growing up in Iowa.  The grand scale of many of these industrial structures fills me with wonder.

The industrialists mastered the necessary science and engineering, found the financing, dug the materials out of the ground, formed them, and worked assiduously until the thing was done.  This work attempts to describe, if not celebrate, those achievements.  I am fascinated by how the curvature of a chemical tank, steel stairs, and the sun combine to form elegant and intricate shadows.  

The positive impact of these industrial spaces, monuments, and artifacts is undeniable.  They provided jobs for the workers who built and tended them, put food on countless tables, sent children to school, and enabled people to retire.  

Yet, the other side of the story is equally compelling.  Some of these structures blight the landscape, pollute our environment, and destroy life.  My work also points out the limitations and consequences of human ambition.  Such dualities are a theme that runs through this work.  I use the multiplicity in the objects to illustrate and understand the complexity and contradiction inherent in us.  

Examining objects in various states of decay is also a reminder of how brief is the existence of most things, and how little time we have to make our mark.  This body of work resolves nothing and takes no sides, but I hope it inspires viewers to ask the questions.

bio

born: 1966, Perry, Iowa

education

University of Iowa, BBA, 1988

selected awards/honors

Cincinnati Opera Exhibition Award, Art Comes Alive, 2012
Award of Merit, Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center Regional Photography Competition & Exhibit, 2012

selected publications

International Photography Annual, Manifest Press, p. 35-36, 2012

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Westheimer Gallery, Sharonville Fine Arts Center: Industrious, Cincinnati, OH, 2013
Cincinnati Music Hall: Excerpts From the Industrious Portfolio, Cincinnati, OH, 2012

selected group shows

Fitton Center for Creative Arts: 46th Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition & Competition, Hamilton, OH, 2013
Art Design Consultants: Art Comes Alive, Cincinnati, OH, 2013
Carnegie Center for the Visual And Performing Arts: Regional Photography Competition & Exhibit, Covington, KY, 2012
Gallery 42:  Inspired, Mason, OH, 2012