Artist & Educator
Projects
Drawings
In this series, I have returned to drawing as my main medium and to portraiture as the prime subject matter. These drawings are created with additive and reductive processes in charcoal. They utilize historical conventions of portraiture both in traditional painting and early photography, sometimes featuring gold leaf and oval or arched picture planes. Some drawings are simply odes to historical images that I find moving, such as a life-size depiction of the archeological photograph of the ‘Hasanlu Lovers.’ Other images come from quick snapshots and are translated into the more emotionally charged and tonally rich language of mark making. Many of these drawings also feature our slightly-wilder-than-us beast friend, the dog.
Veins of the Earth
Mapping connections through the landscape via tributary's: streams, creeks, & rivers.
A metaphor about believing that all things are connected or a vain attempt to prove it?
A photographic survey that expands on my understanding of home as it was explored in my thesis work, Where the Rain Goes.
Pockets of Eden
Moments as place- or non-place- existing on the periphery of our socio-economic consciousness; tucked away in corners of neighborhoods or on the outskirts of commercial zones & industrial complexes.
Ghosts
Photographic survey of a slow decay in the the fork between the Broad and Saluda rivers.
Once ancient Cherokee hunting grounds, the area came to be known as the Backcountry by early colonizers, and eventually became part of a larger area known as the District of Ninety-Six.
Fodder
Much of my photographic work takes the form of notes, studies, and serial images that range from quiet reflections to comical investigations of places and themes that are recurrent in my emotional, intellectual, or physical proximity. What I refer to as “photographic notes” and “studies” explore subject matter that is informed by my role as an instructor of drawing and composition: still life, portraiture, formal compositional studies, and references to art history. This is the fodder that feeds both my teaching and studio practice.
Fourteenth House on the Right / Where the Rain Goes
An autobiographical portrait of a childhood home.
Flesh & Blood
Family photo album.
Collaborative Projects
Over the years, I have had the privilege of working on several research projects with historian Dr. Andrea Feeser, Professor of Art and Architectural History at Clemson University.
These investigations have included mapping the Keowee river along the old Cherokee Village of Isuniga (on present-day Clemson University’s campus) for Going to Water, creating a portrait of Unaker from a Kaolin deposit in western North Carolina, and traveling to Europe to visit with the late contemporary artist Jimmie Durham to conduct research and compile supplementary images for Feeser’s book Jimmie Durham, Europe, and the Art of Relations.
