These images are about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Devastatingly horrible.

It has marked a very distinct period in our time as Americans: the surviving students have taken up the cause of #neveragain and #marchforourlives. These brave kids are trying to accomplish what adults have not been able to- ridding our country of automatic weapons. One surviving teenager Christine Yared wrote, "We can’t let innocent people’s deaths be in vain."

These innocent kids who died are the ones I have chosen to portray. The images of the victims are graphic renderings based on images released to the press. 

I made the fireworks using optic fibers, tinsel and various other methods. The backgrounds are sets of pastel drawings and props.

There will be 17 images in this series. Sadly, one for each of the kids who died that day.

"The Personals Ads" is a new body of work (2017) that is based on an advertisement I placed in The Village Voice, NYC in 2000 under "Women Seeking Men". 

It read:

BE MY HERO
Princess Buttercup seeking her Westleigh.  I, too, have long, golden hair and have been captured by too many unsavory men. Be my hero and save me from such fate.

Princess Buttercup and Westleigh are two characters from a novel and subsequent movie, The Princess Bride, by William Goldman. It is a humorous take on the fairy tale format.

I wanted to advance a familiar narrative by providing a framework for people to express what they might be looking for in a potential mate.

Twelve men called in and I recorded their messages.

Listening to their voices, I conjured up images of what I thought they might look like based on how they described themselves but also very much based on my cultural background, experiences and biases.

Then, I drew the men using law enforcement software that is used for witnesses in identifying suspected criminals. Using the software’s limited bank of facial elements and my own, admittedly, biased image bank, I constructed multiple drawings, finally settling on a composite. With the use of video layering, the viewer watches me constructing the men’s images over time, never fully satisfied with the image of a man I have never witnessed.

I fabricated these mushrooms from silicone molds of a real chicken of the woods mushroom.

The first image is a proposal for a gallery space.

The second image is a detail of one of the mushrooms. 

The next images are from an outdoor installation from the Terrain Biennial, 2017. Artists were given houses to install work in Oak Park, IL.

Chicken of the Woods, are so named because they apparently taste like chicken when fried. They are easy to identify because of their fleshy orange, red and yellow leaves. They have an otherworldly and preternatural look.

"A Porcelain Collection" (ongoing) are portraits of debutantes on porcelain plates. These debutantes represent the class of 1990 in Chicago.

This installation on the green wall was at The Abington Art Center in Pennsylvania.  

"Anywhere But Here" and it consists of 436 different scenes with only 19 selected for edition printing.

The water is actually 1/8" thick pieces of clear, vacuum-formed plastic.  The varied molded forms create the wave structure. The water color is created by placing layers of acetate underneath the plastic.  The coloring and sky are created with lights and backdrops.  The entire construction is eight inches square, about the size of a shoebox. I shot the scenes with a 35 mm camera using a macro lens.  I chose to shoot this small film size so that the image would be grainy when enlarged. The photograph then literally breaks down.  This is intended to reinforce the idea that the image is a simulation.  They have been shown singularly at 48" x 72" and as installations of between 1,113 and 4,717 images mounted to walls (each photo is 4" x 6").

"Hovercraft  (2001) was created from the pool liner and over 6o floats.  A industrial floor dryer inflated the piece. I lived inside the craft for 3 days, writing postcards and journaling.

"Hover": 

1. to remain suspended in one place.

2. to keep lingering about; wait near at hand.

3. to remain in an uncertain or irresolute state; waver.

"Craft":

1. a ship or other vessel

The HoverCraft was a vessel that took me nowhere, nor could go anywhere as it was tethered to the floor dryer.  It was a completely useless as a aircraft or ship.  It was a non-place where I lived for three days, hovering.