Safety in Numbers

Safety in Numbers, Steel Wool, Approx. 10' Hx 8.5' Wx 4"D

Latest piece in a show titled New Lines: Drawn, Stitched, and Sculpted that just opened this Tuesday. The Opening is next Thursday at Spur Projects near San Francisco, CA.

Detail shot (click to enlarge)

Statement:
Safety in Numbers is the latest installment in my Steel Wool Drawing series, Herd Mentality. Exploring the concept of Illusion, both as a visual and a mental construct, the series has grown into one of the main focuses of my artistic exploration. Everyone delights in magic, but no one likes to be fooled…Or do we? Do we spend as much time guarding against the truth slipping in, setting up barriers to protect ourselves from what are, as often as not, unpleasant truths? Playful yet ominous, I hope to reflect on the precarious balance that can be found between truth and fiction, conviction and delusion, strength and fragility.

In my process, I de-construct scouring pads, common household objects, and re-construct them as sheep, highly symbolic, even totemic animals, that were once more common in everyday life in many parts of the world than are the cleaning supplies under your kitchen sink. Illusionistic space is visual metaphor. It is the space where our mental gymnastics, pratfalls, and re-imaginings take place. Steel wool that might otherwise be taken for granted is animated here, imbued with life that is always metaphorically present in the inanimate world. In so doing, I hope to investigate the mental gap between easy assumptions or following blindly (socially, politically, economically) and stealthily, crossing a tightrope without doubt that, though gravity is real, determination can build a bridge to a truer understanding. And that understanding insists that metaphor is a tool rather than a deception.