Specimen

Ideas of human interaction and levels of physical construction touched upon in geometry and physics have saturated my practice for many years. Having come from a small town in Virginia and moving to a big city like Chicago, I was confronted with massive amounts of people, ideas, cultures, and stimuli of which I had never before conceived. I realized that how we interact as people is a similar dynamic found in molecular interaction. This same interaction takes place in celestial formation, plant growth, decomposition, and even emotion. As I came to terms with my own presence in the world, my work acted as a pathway for understanding. As I develop as a maker, the connections I draw between human experience and physical experience become more sophisticated; however, I have consistently seen myself making objects that are not capable of conveying the vastness of these ideas. There is no finite moment-- where time stood still and we were able to look at that instance critically-- in the history of our physical universe. We must always perceive reality as a construction of moments working together, as time and matter are constantly in motion. I find it frustrating to make work that does not embody that which is being communicated. My thesis body of work goes beyond these conceptual implications as a way to allow material interaction to communicate these dynamic physical events. Furthermore, in allowing process to supersede concept, I aim to prove the inherent presence of these ideas within all experience. Just as certain physical phenomenon exists in every experience, the consciousness behind the awareness of those is present, as well. By generating a material dialogue through objects, I am communicating being, movement, time, and a collection of moments. It becomes evident; then, that a man\u27s work stands out from life to such an extent that life cannot explain it..... Art, then, is an increase of life, a sort of competition of surprises that stimulates our consciousness and keeps it from becoming somnolent. (Bachelard, p.xxxiii