statement

In the past few years, I have been developing the "Corvus Series," a body of sculpture and drawing work examining the complex relationship between humans and corvids (principally crows and ravens). An important part of this series has been my exploration of materials that function as both formal and conceptual vehicles for the work. Tar, charcoal, ink, scavenged tire rubber and hoarded press-type lettering have been among the materials that I have used to evoke these scavenging birds. An equally important aspect of the work has been my desire to elicit identification with these birds as thinking, intelligent individuals, as well as question the superiority that humans often arrogate to themselves. "Terra Incognita" is meant to imply a sympathetic exchange between bird and viewer but invoke as well, in its imagery, the line of mutual misunderstanding.

I have recently begun to explore how best to represent the process of human imprinting on birds. The drawing, titled "My name is Hubert and I am not an owl," features an imprinted screech owl and incorporates atmospheric fingerprinted text of the taxonomy of owls using subtle handwritten text in the background, which repeats the work's title. The real-world Hubert, a resident at Barnswallow (an extraordinary bird rehabilitation center in Wauconda, IL), is calm and relaxed around humans; however, in the presence of other birds and owls, Hubert becomes agitated and fearful. Hubert is apparently unaware of his identity as a screech owl and accordingly is frightened of his own species. This drawing is intended to manifest that identity confusion, as well as the manner in which material and process can function as vehicles for meaning (imprinting interpreted with fingerprinted language and an increase in the owl's scale suggesting species transform).

bio

born: Newmarket, Canada

education

Ohio State University, MFA, 1995
NSCAD University, BFA, 1989

selected awards/honors

Artists Fellowship, Moulin à Nef Studio Center, Auvillar, France, October 2012
Director's Choice Award, International Juried Works, 1212 Gallery, Richmond, VA 2011

selected publications

Manifest Gallery; International Drawing Annual 6, Cincinnati, OH: p. 60, 2012
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum of Art; Birds in Art, Wausau, WI: p. 34, 2011

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Sarratt Gallery: The Pecking Order, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 2012
Flora Kirsch Beck Gallery: Beak‚d Shades, Alma College, Alma, MI 2012

selected group shows

Multiple Encounters Second Edition, Lalit Kala Akademi (National Academy of Fine Art), New Delhi, India 2012
Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI, 2011