The Alchemy of Objects

My work is a collaboration with selected objects I encounter and their past creators: a postmodern alchemy transforming embedded meaning and forming new relationships. This "alchemy of objects," as I call it, is simply the transformation that occurs within the various collected forms, and the ways in which they are seen, thought about, and interpreted. Each piece having existence for some other use and intended purpose, through a developed experimentation process and improvisational working, is brought together to create an amalgam form, something unexpected---farfetched from its orginal inherent nature. At some point, each thing transforms from a mass produced manufactured object: a vase, a pressure flex hose, a roof vent, a kitchen bowl, a fence post cap, or what have you, and collectively becomes part of a new form and singular object. Morphology altered, they now exist as objects of art and artifice, bearing resemblance to that which comes from my unconscious self, shaped by the hand of my personality
---even marked in some way by the viewer's own response, imaginations, and interpretations.  Changed.

Most of the objects used would be impossible to make and recreate each engineered and crafted thing. They individually serve as material to construct sculptural assemblage combines.  Without these preexisting objects of attraction acting as a catalyst in creating these invented sculpture forms, without the randomness of chance and discovery allowed into the process, they likely would never have come to be.

In the processes by which they take on new shape, and come to life, certain unanticipated opportunities are exploited. Amid a repertoire of reoccurring and transposable object parts, a developed rapport with the material, and an interplay of dialogue between the works, the elements of serendipity and surprise are allowed---striking balance between accident or plan, chance or intention.
The role the medium takes on is transformative: elements forming compounds. Brought forth from the unconscious mind, its content is imbued with new meaning and emerging interpretations. The objects, taken out of their first frame of reference and repurposed into a quite different context, carry with them residual information. Often accompanied by a degree of recognition and familiarity, they become assimilated into this other created language of forms and associations: brought together and formed as art object.

While dealing with such formal concerns of form as: shape, line, material, and scale, the essence of my work is the transmutation of objects and materials.
As in the historic model: base metals were sought to be changed into precious, these utilitarian and ordinary objects are altered and recreated into something extraordinary and unique.  Ingredients taken from various other contexts of meaning, such as: food prep, plumbing, hardware, automotive, and home & garden, are brought together through chance, experimentation, imagination, and invention, then permeated with new meaning and associations. Found and selected materials: ready-made or reinvented, stumbled upon or sought after, are the elements from which these sculptures are crafted. They combine together to construct amalgamated forms conjured from the unconscious, both spontaneous and imagined. The forms
---some singular, others dichotomous---contain modular parts functioning independently, as well as serving as components to be recomposed into various other forms. This ability to interchange elements and explore form variation, enables the work to realize a more developed conversation.

"Seeing alters the thing that is seen and transforms the seer." (Elkins)