I use domestic ceramic forms as vehicles to share what drives me as an artist and as a musician. Highly crafted porcelain objects act as a canvas to facilitate my ideas about America. The art that I make is directly correlated to my lifestyle. I embrace the honest things in my life like coffee in the morning, bad restaurants and long road trips. My artwork embodies these tendencies.
Through the use of historical techniques and found objects, I narrate my thoughts on the culture in which I grew up. These ideas stem from the variety of thoughts that occur when associating amongst many “types” of people. My pieces are sturdy and often modified with chrome additions, rubber and metal to pay homage to trucks, antiques and industrial design. They contain bright colors and narratives about specifically American attributes. They embody everyday common images. Just as the willow pattern is specific to china, the images I choose are American. Semi-trucks, flames, American flags, mud-flap ladies and humorous phrases are appropriated on the forms. The images are proud, similar to stickers plastered against an old instrument case or on the bumper of a family station wagon. These are souvenirs and icons of American culture.
My work is constructed of hand made and appropriated objects. These objects are displayed in a stark gallery setting to clarify them as “art objects”. The forms have a slick, industrial feel, similar to American diner-ware with a subtle reference to folk craft. The combination of highly crafted porcelain objects with overly decorated low art imagery (placed in a gallery setting) evokes a large importance on images that are generally considered regressive. By using a plethora of decals (dee’kal) on my work, in a “low–art”, decorative sense, I am able to appropriate everyday images into my artwork. This creates a bridge between two cultures and allows for a broad range of interpretation. I aim to deliver kitschy Americana art forms to the “high-art” world and “high-art” to the “low-art” world. By playing on each end of the spectrum, I am able to question, comment and teach about both of the worlds in which I reside.