About Me
INTERMEDIA ARTIST • VETERAN
I am an Intermedia artist, an enigmatic creative, attempting to make sense of the world I have experienced. I focus on memories and experiences (not all my own) to generate my ideas. Most of my artistic practice is expressed through sculptures, photographs, and archives, yet I will use whichever medium works best for me to communicate my idea at the time. My practice has evolved over time. In the Army, I curated my space in barracks and offices in defiance of typical military neat and orderly traditions. I designed coins and shirts for the units I was with, while also developing my photographic and writing skills. After I retired from the Army, I transformed my desire to curate and create into becoming a professional artist.
My military experience was as diverse as my art practice. Throughout my 24 years in uniform, I served in combat and peacekeeping zones, worked in 6 countries, traveled to an additional 7 countries (and 5 more after retirement), trained in 6 different Military Occupational Specialties with the latter half of my career focused on Supply and Logistics. I worked my way up the ranks from a Private, that was not allowed to think for myself, to a Master Sergeant that was responsible for supporting over 3,500 troops. That part of my life did leave me a bit damaged, but I use those experiences including traumas (with some help from my amazing Service Dog Nia), to fuel my varied art practice.
My interdisciplinary approach utilizes the skills, disciplines and experiences developed in my time in the U.S. Army, while exploring the freedom of creativity being an Intermedia Artist affords. Each new artwork or project usually starts with me going through my archives of images, documents, mementos, or memories accumulated throughout my life. I use my experiences and reconstructed memories to create either new objects or new presentations of existing objects as key elements in my artwork. By using my own experiences and memories as the foundation, I build bridges between myself and an audience. I try to leave room for the audience to come to their own conclusions on the meaning of the work, though sometimes my artwork or my titles are pretty blunt and straight-forward–— after all I am an enigma.