As an artist and independent curator I investigate the structure and power of belief, creating projects that attempt to decipher both humanity's and my own connection with the universe. Through collaborative endeavors, I explore the distance between coincidence and intention, with an emphasis on setting up moments that deviate from the expected. In some cases, I am more interested in providing the organized framework around which potential interactions may occur. With all my work, I am more interested in the journey than the destination. I am forever attempting to make the ineffable visible.

I make art because:
It’s rewarding.
It’s an acceptable place to fail.
It’s a good excuse to do things, say things and make things you can’t in other facets of your life.
It’s an opportunity to collaborate with people in near and faraway places.
It’s a way of making something out of nothing.
It’s a way of staying sane.
It’s a vehicle for telling the world who you are and how you think.

Extended Statement
Through a variety of media, my work investigates the structure and power of belief. From alien abductions, to the paranormal, to simple acts of human connection, I create artwork that questions the reductive notion that a person can exist in the world without faith, demonstrating in the process that art itself cannot function without the willing participation of a faithful audience.

In Wear a Green Shirt, for instance, I posted an ad on Craigslist asking people who have been abducted by aliens to arrive at a specific location wearing a green shirt. I then took pictures of people in green shirts at the specified place and time, which were displayed in a gallery context. This project queries the parallel relationship between the belief of the people who chose to wear green shirts, and the people who view the artwork in a gallery. While viewers may approach the idea of alien abduction with a certain kind of cynicism, I suspect that a similar level of cynicism from another set of people accompanies the display of conceptual art projects in galleries. Wear a Green Shirt paradoxically participates in and dispels these belief structures, allowing viewers to simultaneously question the validity of the pictures as examples of people who believe in alien abduction and accept that this very instability of belief is part of the artwork’s effect.

In Aura Portraits, a series of works in water-based media in which I attempt to paint the “auras” of my subjects, my own hand is implicated in the structures of belief that I set up. In attempting to interpret other people’s auras, I am relying first on the belief that auras actually exist, and second on implicit assumptions about the role of the artist in expressing “truth.” I do not consider my portraits ironic in any way; they are a sincere attempt to capture the paranormal. However, I leave it up to viewers to judge how to interpret their veracity, and my role as an interpreting medium.

My exploration of belief also incoporates more mundane acts, such as the simple gesture of giving people hugs. In Let’s Talk, I sat on a couch in a gallery for at least an hour each day throughout the duration of an exhibition, and encouraged visitors to engage in conversations about their concerns. Each conversation ended with a hug. I wanted to explore the power of human connection, the belief that interacting with other humans and receiving hugs from them enhances our lives.

While the healing power of the hug may not be as far-fetched as aliens or auras, it nonetheless relies on the belief and willingness of a person to engage in an action that leaves one vulnerable. I am fascinated with this vulnerability, the weakness that we feel when we believe in something, that is however necessary for our psychological and emotional survival. It may be reductive to imply that all forms of belief are equal, but I am drawn to the fact that there is something common in people’s convictions about the existence of aliens or auras, the power of a hug or of art.