Made from recycled plastic packaging, plastic tube confetti, cellophane, melted plastics, concrete, sand, epoxy resin, rice paper, acrylic, aerosol, damar, & uv archival spray. 

48" x 60"

I began this piece by creating a thick, insulating base by layering concrete, acrylic, and epoxy resin. I then pasted on plastic tube confetti and small pieces of plastic. I continued by collecting the waste/plastic packaging generated by my art practice for a period of months. I then cut and layered these plastics overtop the painting and used to a blowtorch to selectively melt them down. I then continued the process of painting over this many months, building up intense color and texture. A rare example of figuration in my work, I felt compelled to paint this silent spirit into a world choked by our permanent plastics. I was inspired to make this piece while thinking about the psychotic amount of waste we generate; where it is headed and what we might possibly learn from the spirit of these materials.

Baggage, or Material transmutation of anaerobic waste-stream into warning spirit

Wood ash, foraged seaweed, concrete, acrylic, oil, aerosol, damar, & uv archival spray on canvas.

48" x 48"

I started this piece by painting human words and faces and created a small footprint of concrete architecture. I then built up additional layers of hand-foraged seaweed--I wanted the base of this piece to have elements of both the human and non/human worlds. I then coated the entire piece in a thick layer of gooey paint and sifted untreated wood ash from a height of about 8 feet, creating a loose pattern and sealing the entirety in a thick layer of ash. I used aerosols and oil to enhance and preserve the effect, and wanted it to convey the smallness of life beside the enormity of the geological earth, volcanism, and the titanic forces that rule our planet.

Volcanic Winter, or How small we really are compared to the chthonic deep.

Plastic foam balls, pulverized iron (ii,iii) oxide, wood ash, recycled paintbrush fibres, natural charcoal, concrete, salt, epoxy resin, oil, acrylic, damar, & uv archival spray on canvas.

48" x 48"

I began this piece by creating a loose underlay of concrete. I then mulched untreated wood ash and natural charcoal with pulverized magnetite, a naturally magnetic black stone. I wanted to embody the darkness of space, asteroids, and the gleaming black of iron-based metals. I then salt-crusted and oil treated that surface and selectively applied metallic glitters and epoxy resin to create a pulsating sense of light. I then added texture and meaning by applying plastic foam balls accross the work, playing up both the lifelessness and the appealing gleam of plastics.

Party’s Over, or Six hundred years after the purchase impulse, what strange ghosts remain?

Made from medical cotton, recycled textiles, beeswax, ash, epoxy resin, duct tape, concrete, plaster, oil, acrylic, damar, & uv archival spray on canvas.

36" x 36"

I started by first slicing an enormous gash down the center of this canvas. I then stuffed the gash with medical cotton and slowly built up thin threads of epoxy resin, day by day, over the stuffing until the 'wound' was sufficiently healed to paint over. I then used wood ash to create a historically-inspired version of roman concrete and used torn up pieces of recycled cotton and synthetic fibre to mimic the growth of moss and algae across the piece. I made this piece in deference to the immensely complicated human history of cotton and other textiles. The production of these materials fueled the west african slave trade and was responsible for untold human misery. This tradition continues to this day, with the majority of global textile production centred in under-developed nations, continuing to force the brunt of production and ecological disaster on the world's poor. All for cheaper fabrics. 

Scab, or The long and wrenching history of everyday cotton is enough to teach you sadness all over again.  

Plastic foam balls, synthetic hair, garbage, clay, concrete, beeswax, dirt, oil, acrylic, aerosol, damar, & uv archival spray on canvas.

60" x 48"

2021

I began this piece by layering representational paintings over one another, sedimenting ideas of humans and humanity slowly into a substrate of clay and concrete. Using synthetic and natural hair fibres recycled from my painting pratice and brushes, I slowly added volume by layering beeswax and acrylics. Finally I used garbage and these unkillable plastic foam balls to create intense texture and a topographical motif. I created this piece while  thinking through ideas of plastics and oceans, humans and garbage. I had been studying topographical maps and ecological theory and wanted to create something that communicated both the scale of our current crisis of plastic while also reaching towards the idea that those plastics are crystallizations of human emotions--the desire to be seen, to feel safe, to have enough, for convenience. They are a long-range archeological record of our fleeting desires.


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