The seed, as potential life, is depicted first organically and then in metal in order to express the concept of alchemy. The visual metamorphosis of the seed into various metallic forms is a symbolic gesture of protecting its fragile nature. Three reflective metallic spheres represent completeness of the self as every point on the sphere becomes the center. The viewer enters the piece through the reflection in these globes and expresses along with the rest of the imagery —the potential of being.
This piece is a symbolic return to the sea where life began and served as the nurturing force to the most ancient ancestor of our body. The photo-images are configurations of crosses formed by the pilings under a pier. These crosses emerging from the sea become icons of martyrdom and memorials of loss. These window boxes serve as the sanctuary for the individuals and experiences that flow in and out of our lives. Picking stones from the sea is a metaphor for this journey.
There is a deliberate triangular relationship between all the symbols in this piece. The triangle represents the essence of humankind. It is first personified by the cluster of grapes. The grapes become the wine, the wine becomes the blood, the blood becomes the essence of life and is expressed by the qualities of the rose. All the images are reinvented using metal as a contradiction to their fragile nature. The chain represents a circular transgression, each link binding us to our ancestry and the beginning of human kind.
This piece is painted to express how dusk merges into dawn. The clocks are frozen to express metaphysical time zones, from the beginning of time to almost the end of time. The photo-images depict the virgin sea and follow its evolution to the present. “Race without reason” talks about our intervention with nature and the exponential rate that we endeavor to “progress” regardless of consequence.
April 29, 1992 Los Angeles was on fire. The night had no end. From the heart of the city, the explosion erupted like a festering boil with all the poisons of collected misfortune and imbalance. In sympathy with the martyred city I shackled feathers to concrete boxes and crucified images of the decay and destruction. Grass seed fills the Plexiglas tubes that create the grid for this configuration.
Symbolic imagery is used to express the burden of guilt passed down through time and perpetuated in mythical storytelling. Figs link us to our ancestry as an ancient fruit. Fig leaves are the garment of modesty and have been depicted in art as far back as 300 BC in Greek and Roman statues. Duality is expressed by suspended squares, chance is suggested by a reference to rolling the dice, and finally a metamorphosis becomes the point of cohesion when the combination of two evolves into one.