Frankenstein was a creature reassembled from a division of death.  Under this model, death is not a finite epitaph of what life was, but rather a new opportunity for materiality’s transformation. Life is not limited to itself but rather what it can morph into. This opens it into unknown and organic possibilities. Demise can simply be an overlooked possibility of life.

Currently I have a body of work touring called WYSIWYG.  So far it has made stops in Philadelphia Texas, Florida, and Ohio.   It’s an installation that began as a personal exploration of a dissection of cute which I was also using to parallel American art history. In the same way a grizzly bear is made acceptable for a babies crib, the great avant- garde of art has been made palatable and cuddly by being put on the life support of the museum wall, or on a coffee mug in the shop. After WYSIWYG, a large-scale oil painting/installation was retired from its original site it continued to grow and change meaning by interacting with new communities. In each new community a workshop is held which invites the new audience to donate materials from their lives and create elements to add to the installation. At every stop it grows both in size and universal significance.  It is a B-Movie monster, eating away at the gallery walls and Frankenstiened by my own reactions to art materials, audience, environment and critical reactions to philosophy and art history.  The audience it visits, not only helps provide its dismembered parts but, aids the creation of the electricity that gives it breath.  Their memories and lives are re-presented to them in a way they have never imagined using the personal materials, which hold them. Architectural and community context also magnify this. In Texas the gallery was regarded for its watercolor shows. In response to this a large watercolor was painted directly on the walls through a community workshop I directed as a central part of the finished work. At the Art Academy in Cincinnati, which teaches that drawing is the foundation to all creativity, students were asked to draw and respond directly onto the gallery walls.

The communities the show is created in play a vital role, as they donate the materials and interact directly with me in the installation process.  The people relating to the materials, which come from their lives, and working with me as the catalyst are the essential aspect to the contextual shift in the work. Hence the change of communities is key to understanding its totality.  In many ways the happening atmosphere of the installation/creation creates the specific and personal art experience. This is echoed in the architectural change of space. Each space presents new challenges and architectural identity is one of the key ingredients in having its backbone become unique.  Through this method the monster will always hold the personality of the place it is reborn.