ARTIST STATEMENT

I’m sorry to let you down. I’m not from New York City or L.A.; I’m from rural Pennsylvania. I know, it’s hard for me to admit this sometimes, but I’m coming to terms with it. I used to do these large-scale paintings with some deep meanings on identity, but my work devolved. Now I use my art as a type of therapy to deal with my ambivalence towards my beloved rural culture.

Yes, once in a while I still do some urban things, but for the most part I utilize my pastoral surroundings: deer, hunting, roadkill, and the occasional three-toothed trailer dweller. I tend to focus on things that would typically be considered normal to my fellow community members, exaggerating and re-presenting them in a way that alters the way they would ordinarily be viewed. Items of kitsch, propaganda, and pretty much anything else you can think of are game for me to drown with humor and irony like the local bar drunk’s liver.

My work takes the form of both gallery-specific objects and public guerrilla installations and performances. I present these ephemeral works by using photographs, newspapers, videos, and, if I can get them back, the original artifacts as documentation. Executing these tactical interventions anonymously forces the audience to create a dialogue between themselves and the work, bringing their own history and experiences to them.