Catalyst 200,000

Catalyst is about anyone being a catalyst for change and evolution toward awareness. A meditative work in progress. A transformation from one state to a different state of being. It is about an interconnection between all things. A shared experience to our place and potential in the world.

Catalyst 200,000 is the fourth project in my Catalyst series using 200,000 pieces of jute twine cut to the circumference of my hand, knotted and linked together in lengths of 100 pieces, wrapped around my hand, and placed in a format. As a meditative performance or demonstration of tying the knots into strands, it is an installation that can continue to grow during the course of an exhibition. This project originally developed by a professor at the end of a painting class I attended at Metropolitan State College in Denver. The professor took a piece of string, cut a length and handed a piece to each student, showing that string was a symbol for connection and students share a bond of being part of this same class.

 

Catalyst 2,057,910

Catalyst is about anyone being a catalyst for change and evolution toward a better self. In turn making the world a better place. A transformation from one state to a different state of being. It is about the interconnection between all things, not just people. A shared experience that allows for an awakening to our place and potential in the world.

For Catalyst 2,057,910, the latest iteration of this installation at MSUD Center for Visual Art, I hand-cut 2,057,910 cross section circular pieces of rubber from thousands of bicycle inner tubes, counting and documenting each piece in a ledger and threaded them onto twelve-foot sections of black rope.

 

2025 Reconnect: Alumni Show, MSUD Center for Visual Art, Denver, CO

2024 Seed, BRDG Project, Denver, CO

 

Intertwined 270

 Art in the Round, BRDG Project, 2024

Submission for BRDG Project's Art in the Round Fundraiser Gala Event. The premise for this project was based on the idea of cosmic consciousness and parallel or alternate universes. A 270 foot single strand of black rope is laced and woven between both sides of the wood round creating conical shapes with the beginning and end exposed.

Five Possible Permutations

Photographs mounted on poly-board. 52.25 x 41.5 inches

Does the idea of something serving the function of art require the presence of another? In this instance presence presented itself as activation of a space at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, patrons moving through an exhibition breezeway, moving left to right, right to left, sitting, standing, and absent.

I began investigating the museum space when a patron said, “art is not in the museum, it is the museum.” What brings a museum to life? What makes it a museum? The complicity of the people occupying it, traversing the spaces appeared paramount to defining its purpose.

 

Body Motion Drawings

The Big Draw, Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO, 2023

Accumulating Lines Away From My Body, Accumulating Lines In A Circular Motion,
Accumulating Lines Toward My Body, 2004 - 2005, Prismacolor black pencil on tracing paper with sound recordings of each session. Each drawing 150 feet in length.

Integration 5,412

Art in the Round, BRDG Project, Denver, CO, 2022

Submission for Bridge Project's Art in the Round Fundraiser Gala Event. A dichotomy of materials. 5,412 cross section hand cut pieces of bicycle inner tube and twelve inch wood round. 

Catalyst 2,000,000

Pirate Contemporary Art, Lakewood, CO, 2020-2022

Catalyst is about anyone being a catalyst for change and evolution toward a better self. In turn making the world a better place. A transformation from one state to a different state of being. It is about the interconnection between all things, not just people. A shared experience that allows for an awakening to our place and potential in the world.

Catalyst 2,000,000 is the extension of a previous installation and performance in 2018 about a repeated action intended to induce mindfulness and a meditative state. The act of making, assembling and accumulating, a type of accretion can be a path to transcendence. The subtle action of threading suggest the viewer’s personal engagement with the environments they occupy, both natural and industrial. The process of observing and introspecting completes the work as a mindful experience. I believe to effectively navigate the external world and create positive change one must be internally centered and mindful of their present situation and state of mind, this includes an empathetic perspective of how we effect everything around us. From this understanding a realization emerges about how we repeat everyday actions and should mindfully view the importance of these actions, no matter how small as contributing to the construct of our reality. For Catalyst I cut 2,000,000 cross section circular pieces of rubber from thousands of bicycle inner tubes, counting and documenting each piece in a ledger. For the performance accompanying the installation I hand-thread each piece onto sections of rope. Prints are inked strands of threaded rubber pressed onto 44x44inch pieces of paper using the weight of my body. 

Assembling the Congregation

The Language of Trees, BRDG Project, Denver CO, 2022

Assembling the Congregation was an installation and performance for a show titled The Language of Trees composed of one hundred charcoal drawings on the backside of used 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper using photo references of trees from around the world. Accompanying this installation was the sound of bio-acoustic seismic microphone recordings from inside and near trees. There is a scared interconnection to my relationship of any eco-system. Trees are one of many living communicating entities essential to the sustainability of our biosphere. For myself drawing is a type of deconstruction of an object in order to understand how it functions and why it appears the way it does. Through observation and repetitive rendering of these trees I am able to deconstruct each one and re-assemble them as a global forest, a congregation where their language is spoken.  

 

Akashic Portrait

2020 

One hundred thousand 1's and 0's in Prismacolor black pencil on tissue paper coated with resin, one hundred and fifty 5x7 inch picture frames, mannequin, and turkey feather.

The Akashic Record is a mystical, non-physical library that is a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all sentient beings. This vibrational information is encoded on a non-physical plane of existence known as the mental plane. Thoughts, words, intent, etc. generate their own unique frequency of vibration stored in the Record that can only be accessed through deep meditation.

Everything a person creates, their gestures, actions, the way they perform everyday tasks is a unique identifier that forms a self-portrait. In art some pieces are specifically designed to be self-referential, to communicate an introspective moment, most often one of self-realization. There are many reasons why a self-portrait manifests. In this instance it may be an accumulation of experiences that have or are leading to definitive change. I am the person that I am today because of shared experiences with everything and everyone I have ever encountered. The energy of these experiences vibrate outward and inward expanding externally and internally, a macro and micro dialogue.