SUBJECTS
At first my art arose from places I knew well—housing projects, poor neighborhoods in the South + a Mexican immigrant community in Chicago. I analyzed how the dispossessed maintain their humanity against great odds.
My art has since evolved to exam the complex symbol system that undergirds power + sustains it broad influence.
I traveled to Haiti to understand how global political + economic decisions effect Haitians, even in the most remote villages.
In the Evidence of Consumption photographs, discarded objects on a stark white background are enlarged to 4 ft square. They become the clinical evidence of millions of things consumed everyday in the United States.
INFLUENCES + IDEAS
I combine photographs with objects, which are art forms that rarely meet. The resulting tension makes new political + cultural interpretations possible. I use the languages of marketing + propaganda to question why society invests certain individuals (usually male) with power + silences other (usually poor) individuals.
My closest influences are Robert Rauschenberg + Joseph Cornell. Their witty selection of objects, Rauschenberg’s engagement with democracy + Cornell’s contemplative interpretations of culture and emotions influence my practice.
My art asks serious questions about the central concerns of our time. I feel compelled to make beautiful things about difficult ideas, because I want viewers to think deeply when standing before a work of art.
The enormous intellectual potential of these ideas engages me everyday.