Artifacts & Affections

The Artifacts and Affections series was born during a trip to the East Coast in 2006. During this trip Jo Ann Kemmis and I decided our upcoming exhibit should be a collaboration, not in terms of blending mediums but with a shared theme. We found that we both had a mutual affection for the beauty of urban decay and it was not until a few months after the trek that Artifacts and Affections emerged.

My previous series entitled Urban Twilight consisted of pieces meant as stills from the everyday cycles of the city. Arranged as specimens the goal was to embody the poignant beauty engrained in the leftovers and discarded pieces of everyday life. The Artifacts and Affections series is more about the feeling; less clinical in tone, the pieces attempt to invoke a more contemplative and inspired response. During my travels, sitting on the train, watching the towns trudge by, walking the streets of Albany and Rochester, my eyes were still drawn to the small details. The textures and colors of hundred-year-old iron, cracked bricks and moss, create a visual archive of both past and present. It is my intent for these sculptures to be artifacts embodying the affection I have for the irony between the beautiful and destructive effects we have on our environment.