Images of two of my installations have been selected for the Home/Not Home exhibit in conjunction with the American Studies Association (ASA) conference in Denver, November 17-19, 2017. I’m so honored to have work included! Edgar Heap of Birds (he created Wheel outside the Denver Art Museum) and Robert Warrior (ASA President) curated the exhibit.

Also exciting, my daughter Michaela, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, is presenting on a panel, Canons, Collecting, and Object Homes in American Art.

I won’t be attending the conference, but my heart and soul will be there!

This is my statement for the exhibit:

My home is on the high plains, land of vast blue skies, grasses waving in the wind, herds of wild pronghorn and domestic cattle dotting the prairie; geological, archaeological and paleontological wonders; ongoing histories of westward expansion and violence against Native Americans; and energy extraction industries.

Utility poles, fence posts, pipelines, dashed highway lines, and mile markers march their way across the landscape, keeping time in measured intervals as a visual rhythm.

I’m inspired by these rhythms and the land they mark, yet don’t want to scar the land any more than we humans already have by drilling, digging, or moving earth to make art.

By creating ephemeral installations, I aim to leave little trace on our much-scarred land. I create the objects in my studio and install them in the environment, leaving them in place just long enough to record their existence with images that capture my experience. When complete, I record the geographic coordinates of the place, pack the objects and leave.

The photographs, as 2-dimensional renderings of an experience in place and time, play with scale to visually describe the objects as belonging in the landscape, yet they are intruders. They are not home.

Image of installation 104°49′ W x 40°54′ N no.47