braille
96" x 150" x 8"...3 large separate panels, mixed media, based on the following original poem, written in a state of beautiful madness:
This is a love letter to the nobility of new life born from decay.
This is a love letter to all things that we are given and cannot take.
And I wait. A warehouse full of boxes to be unpacked. A constellation of dust to be settled. This is a love letter to the only one who can decipher a language spoken only by a field of grasses.
beautiful madness
8ft x 4ft x 1ft; Drywall, cat skull, resin, string, bullet ants, ink, pencil, paint, lace, and mylar, 2009.
Detail of the five inch deep cavity, lower part containing a cat skull suspended by thread. Bullet ants, mylar orchids, lace, and shells.
stay
8ft x 4ft x 1ft; Drywall, bird skeleton, feathers, resin, string, bullet ants, ink, pencil, paint, lace, and mylar, 2009
the architect
8ft x 4ft x 1ft; Drywall, feathers, resin, string, black widow spider, dental floss web, duck skull, ink, pencil, paint, lace, and mylar, 2009
Detail of bullet ant under the skin of the wall...
Detail of five inch deep cavity containing black widow, floss web, mylar flowers, duck skull, and bullet ants. Cast plaster baroque elements.
Braille
This show is based on a poem. Brazillian bullet ants crawl up the wall under the "skin" of the wall and into the resin, which was spilling out of submerged frames. The frames were made from cast plaster silicon molds, then sanded and sculpted to seamlessly melt into the wall. The paintings themselves were highly complex dioramas consisting of things like a spiderweb made from dental floss, which held an actual black widow; a cat skull with the word's "Beautiful Madness" inscribed into it, and which was suspended by thread and crawling with Bullet ants; an actual bird skeleton; and bleached out orchids, hand cut from mylar. The layers of resin exceeded twenty per piece, the time in making these stretched into hundreds of hours.