Witness

Siskiyou Arts Museum, Dunsmuir, CA, 2015

Swing Tree, Swing, enlarged Google map of clear cuts in canyon around Dunsmuir and Mt. Shasta area, tree swing, Siskiyou Arts Museum, 2015

Witness, antlers, wood, built chair, 1rpm motor, windshield wiper, astroturf, tree swing, Siskiyou Arts Museum, 2015

Witness was built from ideas that surfaced during my daily walks in the woods off Mott Road above my hometown of Dunsmuir, where I have lived for the past 30 years. My dog occasionally finds a deer leg, an antler or a bone and brings these to me as an offering. These gifts find their way into my sculptures, graphic reminders from our wanderings.

Witness functions liminally as both a meditation on the concept of “home” for us as individuals and “home” as niche for the wild life in the forests surrounding our town. The title, Witness, acts as both verb and noun and suggests that we are each playing the part of the witness as our world morphs before our eyes.

This tree swing is very similar to the one I swung on as a youth, free from cares and enjoying the natural world of dirt at my feet, tree above my head, and wind across my body. The map placed under the swing is an enlarged version of the Google-Earth image of the canyon around the city of Dunsmuir, where I live. White splotches are evident where the forest has been clear-cut in an ever proliferating and relentless onslaught. With these two elements, the swing and the map, I am juxtaposing the innocence of a child’s encounter with the natural world and the knowledge of the adult’s encounter with that world, under assault.

Eye of Newt, Leg of Deer or My Eye, My Leg

Shasta College Gallery, Redding, CA, 2015

Eye of Newt, Leg of Deer, deconstructed table, pinch pots, freeway glass, deer leg, 5′ x 1′ x 7’h, Shasta College Gallery, 2015

Eye of Newt, Leg of Deer detail, deconstructed table, pinch pots, freeway glass, deer leg, 5′ x 1′ x 7’h, Shasta College Gallery, 2015

When the whole world appears upside down, broken and spent, what do you do?

Call on the powers that be.

When things go awry, humans throughout history have called on unseen powers to right the wrongs in their world. From spirits to shamans, from ancestors to gods, prayers, shrines, cave paintings, amulets and offerings, we try them all.

The title for this piece comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and is a variation on the quote from the second witch: “Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog, adder’s fork, and blind–worm’s sting, lizard’s leg and howler’s wing—for a charm of powerful trouble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

This sculpture is a petition to those powers that be.

If I Had Legs

If I Had Legs, cast aluminum crow, wood, bear scapula, 5'5" x 1 1/2" x 2'

Scratching the Void

Liberty Arts Gallery, Yreka, CA, 2014

Scratching the Void, plexi-glass, wood, wiper motor, windshield wiper, train transformer, 4′ x 4′, Liberty Arts Gallery, 2014

Between This

Gallery 1078, Chico, CA, 2014

Between This, 1 rpm motor, hand built chair, angle iron, blue mirrored plastic, 3.5′ x 3.5′ x 9′, Gallery 1078, 2014

Between This detail, 1 rpm motor, hand built chair, angle iron, blue mirrored plastic, 3.5′ x 3.5′ x 9′, Gallery 1078, 2014

Between this

Between all the moments that have been and the moments that will be

Between yesterday and tomorrow

In the interstices between cells

Between beats of a heart

The last breath between this world and the next.

Between the moment one jumps and the moment one falls

Between the skin and the muscle beneath

Between you and me

Them and us

No one and someone