To Inflict
2017
Self/Other
2017
36" X 80"
Acrylic and urethane paint, pumice, water-swellable clay, colored pencil, and graphite on paper
This painting metaphorically depicts the dangers of the self/other dualism that permeates particularly contemporary American culture. This binary, created by those in power and with privilege, artificially imposes boundaries between themselves and those considered “other,” outside of the realm of moral consideration.
Multiple hands and a distorted skeletal body create the central figure that is self-isolated from the patterned figures that make up the outside world. This visual narrative articulates the way nationalism, racism, sexism, and speciesism (human prejudice against other animals) defensively create barriers between the defined self—white, male, American citizen, human— and the "other." With the emaciated body as reference to this concept, I evoke malnourishment as a symbol of the need for sustenance from the outside world. Contrasting the deadened color of the central figure, the cow, pig, chicken, fish, and two human figures are larger in size, deeper in color, and watery in movement, to suggest the potential for a fluid conception of boundaries between a self and an other, and the need for contact and connection.
When will we respond?
2017
3’ X 8’2”
Acrylic, urethane and beeswax paint, and colored pencil on paper
In this painting, I use cancer as metaphorical lens to look at the unchecked expansion of global capitalism. Cancer is defined as cell growth that fails to respond to signals that maintain the balance of cell proliferation and death. In this a macro scale, humans (largely from Western, colonial societies) are unresponsive to environmental signals indicating the extreme destruction caused by our profit-driven system. Spliced with an image of a mass grave of human and animal skeletons—coral reefs, elephants, fish, reptiles and others particularly threatened by human activity—the painting alludes to the destructive consequences of prioritizing profit growth over the health of the environment and those who depend on it for life. I exaggerate the size and weight of the cancer cells, expanding limitlessly beyond the frame, in comparison to the small, skeletal bodies, to point to this perverse imbalance in our values.
Look Close
2017
Each 5" X 3"
Oil on panel
These four paintings are part of a series that zoom in on details of the experiences of animals in confinement, and are intend to be intimate in their size. The one on the far left is of a cow's eye; the second, a chicken's foot; the third, a pig's mouth*; and the fourth, a diseased milking cow's nipple.
*Pigs can develop neurotic behavior (unsurpirsingly) from being confined in cages in which they can't turn around, including chewing on the metal bars of their cage.