Booth 401

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About the Artist

I work in large format woodcuts utilizing animals as metaphors to convey competition in our daily lives. My prints attempt to evoke the different moments of our competitive society; pieces that express the spectrum of competition from hiding away to preparing for a fight. The reality is that all life is competition and we create barriers in our minds that allow us to think we have a space we can step into where the competition stops. We love to find ways to hide from the competition, to shade ourselves from the harshness of its glaring bright light, so we put on disguises that shield our identities and true motives for a while. The ability to be successful is not dependent on the number of triumphs that you have, but rather on your willingness to get up and continue the struggle after a defeat. Whether we win or lose, the fight is never over. We can't all be winners in every battle, but you will always still find fellowship in other losers. You will never be all alone in the end. I use the chick as a metaphor for desire and fear in this competitive thing called life; a rooster symbolizes a winner or a loser, but one that can anticipate the demands of the fight. Every time he walks into the fight ring, he stands with pride and holds his head high. Breeze Before The Leap, a five-layer reduction woodcut, channels the ensuing emotions which follow competition; waiting, anticipating, and regrouping yourself for the next upcoming fight. The tree branches on the rooster's comb symbolize the bare branches of a tree during Winter waiting for the regrowth of Spring. This represents the time waiting for a new opportunity to emerge after an intense moment of competition. That constructed space allows us to regroup and enter the next fight toward our goal. Every attempt may not succeed or look glorious, but every victory is built upon the foundation of loss, suffering, effort, and sacrifice. What drew me into printmaking was the anticipation of seeing the final result after all of the processes that go into each print. Every step in the creation of a print can almost be viewed as its own art form. The entire process must be planned out ahead of time because once each step is completed, you cannot change the course of the image. I enjoy this because it forces me to fully realize the image before I start the process. But even with all of the planning involved, the outcome is still uncertain until the print is completed, so it always keeps the process fresh.

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