Artist Statement



 I was a child maybe eight years old when a family friend took me fishing in a small farm pond outside of town. He handed me the rod to reel in a giant catfish and I struggled to get it to shore in alternating fits of excitement and exhaustion. To my horror and amazement this person removed a knife from his belt and cleaned the fish before my eyes, making me an accessory to the act in real time. It was a difficult task. He identified a large mass in the guts as the stomach and deftly sliced it open to reveal a fully formed bluegill inside. I watched stunned as he proceeded to gut the bluegill as well, delicately removing a partially digested minnow from its stomach in turn.  

There is something here about the illusion of living edges, the truth of interconnectedness and suffering, the mystery of beginnings and endings, the profound power of water. We are social animals performing in time, loving, attending, deluding, consuming and being consumed. Intentional play, humor and absurdity are grounding, revealing approaches to making. For me, this is the only honest path forward for creating work, for human solidarity. Love is an animal with other animals inside it.