I need to stop painting.                                                      

I need to stop making sculpture. 

I need to stop making installation. 

I need to stop making photographs. 

I need to stop making drawings. 

More importantly, I must completely abandon all efforts to try to make any of the categories of art. 

 

 

I need to stop trying to make art. 

I need to make, create, invent, manifest questions in forms, using any means necessary (acts, materials, ideas).  Art is not a goal, it is a journey.  Art is not an object; it is merely manifested “inside” an object.  An art object is not an artwork without the presence of the viewer to complete it and discover its existence, both the physical object and the ephemeral art embodied in this object. 

-Excerpt from my journal 1.12.07 (above)

I believe that today not only do people not want to be told things or sent data, but they also do not have the time to listen to someone blabber about their agenda or perceptions of life. Contemporary people want to interact, make, manipulate, and participate.  We live in a consumer or audience-driven world, rather than a supplier driven world.

While attracting viewers through the interactive aspects of my work, I manage to challenge cultural and social norms.  I allow people the opportunity to perform actions such as sucking on Blow-Pops in a gallery setting—not only eating food, but literally consuming my artwork, that I worked so long to create.  This artwork is accessible to everyone who is present—it requires little or no prior knowledge to be “understood,” or phrased more correctly, experienced.

This philosophy that you just read does not apply to all of my work and does not necessarily describe any of the work that I have done, but these are fundamentals I have thought about and continue to think about.  Perhaps the previous thoughts are part of a subjective personal manifesto that is meant to be understood metaphorically.  I have written artist statements but have concluded that one artist statement cannot accommodate all of my work because of how varied my art is.   I have bodies of work made within one year that one would never guess was made by the same artist (such as my Indian ink paintings and the interactive pieces.)