Family Tree - Thesis Statement
At the core of my work is a complex relationship between the grandparents of my ideas, Freedom and Discipline. For as long as I can recall I have struggled with a particular ambivalence, simultaneously drawn toward the arduous process of work coupled with the desire for complete abandon and escape. From these two extremely broad categories has spawned three more concentrated and precise subjects, Photography/Documentation, Natural vs. Industrial and Containers, Enclosures & Frames, respectively.
The first of the offspring to emerge was Photography/Documentation. Wanting to describe the world around me in a complete selfless manner, I found the camera to possess the ability to spontaneously compose and frame my surroundings. With more resemblances to Freedom than Discipline, however, Photography/Documentation by itself became an unbalanced way of working. The next concept to emerge in my thinking was Natural vs. Industrial. Arriving somewhat unexpectedly, this theme has served to explain much of my work up until recently. With almost identical characteristics of both Freedom and Discipline I believed this idea to be the absolute clarification of my work. Natural represented all that was free and without restraint while Industrial obviously embodied order and control. By combining them I was attempting to harmonize two vast extremes of my consciousness. I enjoyed this successful process of working for many years and continue to use it for the basis of numerous pieces. However, still not satisfied with the ability of these two concepts to completely explain my work, the next progeny was manifested. Containers, Enclosures & Frames was born and with its apparent likeness of Discipline, it served to equalize the spontaneous quality of its older sibling, Photography/Documentation.
With the three descendents of Freedom and Discipline acknowledged, I must now explain how each has conjoined with another idea to create final works of art. Photography/Documentation united with Residue, a concept that was imparted by my undergrad sculpture professor. This union produced the piece that I have been working on for over three years entitled, Winter Growth. Natural vs. Industrial united with Isolated Growth, an idea whose origin I am not entirely sure of yet, to produce both Deciduous Collective and Rootless. Finally, Containers, Enclosures & Frames united with a modified physics term, Maximum Potential Energy, to create the piece, Just in case (everything I'd want in a backpack if shit went down). By analyzing and categorizing my ideas through a family tree–style diagram I am able to understand more acutely my three principal areas of concentration and along with an endless am
