Constructed Visions III - Artist Work & Statements

Miguel de Aguero

Statement: The pattern embodies a set of rules, principles and assumptions. 
The pattern provides the skeleton that supports the rest of the image. 
The pattern evokes a certain time, a certain flavor, or a certain memory. 
The pattern sets the eye?s clock as it ticks around the image. 
The pattern defines a very small world, but it contains everything.

Cody Arnall

Statement: My work is primarily focused on the idea that human life is a product of nature, and nature is now harming itself in irreversible ways. I make sculptures, videos, and installations that utilize still projected images, moving images, sound, objects, and animals. While balancing humor with seriousness, through my materials and their manipulation, I speak about points of tension, deception, conflict, and aggression.

Website: http://www.codyarnall.com

Kayla Bailey

Statement: My current body of work is primarily embroidery, embellishment and applique. I am also branching out to include wooden elements in order to give my pieces more depth. Throughout the artworks, the main themes are science and nature. Some pieces are stitched from patterns I made using an amalgamation of photos that I have taken. Others use images from the lenses of microscopes and telescopes to blend together the visual similarities between the micro and macro world. Lately, I find myself struck by the fact that while humans are making a massive impact on the health of the planet, we are also small and inconsequential in the grand scheme of the universe. I hope that when people see my work it makes them curious.

Website: https://kaylabailey51.wixsite.com/kaylabailey

Eldon Benz

Statement: Art - Fun - Whimsy - Process. 

Balance is lacking in our world today. Making otherwise discardable materials into something interesting, fun, and balanced is my challenge. 

There is no one process. A large part of the art is selecting and manipulating the media to fulfill the fleeting vision of the day. Can the vision and the materials at hand generate enough internal interest to become a complete tangible object, just bits and pieces on the work bench, or just a figment?

Website: http://www.eldonbenz.com

David J Bermingham

Statement: My cross-disciplinary practice invokes the surface language of domestic objects in order to create sculptures, actions, and artworks that perform identity from a queer perspective. Straddling the boundaries between contemporary art, craft, and design, my works manipulate the spectacle of ornamentation and aspirational decor, positing those elements in relation to gendered spaces, bodies, and urban histories. Key to my process is the subversive employment of transformative layering and ritualistic fetishizing extracted from the radical theatricality of the drag queen/harlequin tradition. The works become critical transistors originating within homo-historic discourse, but enact a potential performativity that invites all viewers to reexamine identity politics within the collective environment.

Website: http://www.davejbermingham.com

Jerry Cox

Statement: I let classic original concepts evolve into stylized designs that give a narrative. In my Sculpture I usually invoke some Sci-fi theme, sometimes subtlety and sometimes blatant. I work mostly in wood, combining turning, carving, construction, and assemblies. My work is highly refined and finished to the best of my woodworking abilities. I choose subjects for their challenges to learn some new technique

Website: http://coxstl.com

George Floyd Weiss

Statement: Propelled by intuition and curiosity, my work usually has a way of unraveling itself through process and experimentation. Choosing such a process-driven method I believe this is what links subconscious thought to the piece and in itself holds a narrative of its own. 

Website: https://www.jackweissartist.com/

Nancy Grimes

Statement: My recent work is about color and pattern. I am influenced by pop culture, artists such as Matisse, and the world around me. Sculptural work in wool and paintings in gouache have color and patterns in common. 

Tim Hahn

Eric Hoefer

Statement: The timeless quality that can be found in ceramic vessels and objects drives my work; it is a strong reflection of humanity revealing our history, values and spirit. Clay is a uniquely intimate material that allows one to create through the act of touch. Its infinite possibility of abstraction and expression is inspiring. Historical ceramic iconography, modern painting, sculpture and contemporary design all merge together and inform my work. 
Currently, My research has been in soda and wood-fired architectonic porcelain vessels. These vessels loosely resemble a variety of man-made constructions such as huts, domes, cathedrals, temples, and urban landscapes. There are interesting parallels between pottery and architecture. Each is ergonomically designed to relate and interact with the human body. They are not only functional objects, but they also provide an outlet for artistic expression, creativity, and imagination. In my mind, architecture is sculpture that is inhabited and pottery is sculpture that functions. Many of my vessels are influenced by Deconstructivist-Style architecture with the use of freedom of form and a visible display of complexity in the structure, rather than strict adherence to functional concerns and formal design elements. Unpredictability, non-rectilinear shapes, which distort and displace elements of the composition, controlled chaos and fragmentation are all features employed in the formulation of my ceramic vessels. The surface of these objects becomes a canvas, which allows for further expression and detail within the composition. The application of stripes, Polk-a-dots and linear and nonlinear graphic imagery at once unifies and fragments the form. At times this combination of form and surface can echo historical artistic movements such as Op-Art, Cubism, Pop-Art and Modernism culminating in Post-Modern statement. 
Many of my vessel forms are abstracted. Form, color and line, are independent from any directly recognizable, visual references that attempt to replicate the appearance of a visible reality. The primary focus is to construct ceramic pieces that are vehicles for conveying ideas, which employ both historical and contemporary artistic idioms. The conceptualized visual-language in these ceramic vessels are both playful and unpredictable. The viewer’s notion of form, design and functionality at times maybe challenged. The ultimate objective of my work is to create a sense of wonder and curiosity within my audience. Engaging them in a spirited conversation with each piece.

Website:  erichoeferceramics.com

Howard Jones

Statement: Sometimes if you can't find the right tool for the job you just have to make it yourself.

Website:  http://www.howardjonesartist.com

Robert Kokenyesi

Statement: I intend to tell bursts of stories of elegance, beauty and vulnerability of the creatures that live on beaches and in the oceans, stories of the humbling and unstoppable power of the waves and currents, stories of menacing and enigmatic mysteries emerging to us on the beach or in the depth of the oceans.

Website: http://www.beachfrontpottery.com

Debra J Lewis

Statement: I am exploring memories simple and complex. Memories shared by a Marine fighting with PTSD or those of a simple cup of tea. They swirl around us and cause us to pause and think.

Jackson Martin

Statement: Over the years my artwork has evolved into an interdisciplinary approach to sculpture, installation and photography. I combine and intertwine these concentrations in order to create dynamic experiences for my viewer. I regularly take walks with my camera, composing my reality and gaining inspiration in the process. I invariably gravitate towards environments where nature is reclaiming industry. My installation projects portray this complex relationship, in which I construct industrial containers to hold and embrace unaltered natural materials. These fabricated environments affirm the absolute power and everlasting resilience of the natural world. 

I am also attracted to ordinary and everyday objects, like the cinderblock and wooden pallet. I rescue them from banality by recreating and reorganizing their components into new, engaging combinations. Often, I will circle back and compose photographs of the new hand-made objects, involving them in manipulated situations that aid in subverting their original context. With my recent body of sculptural work, I am honoring and showing respect for the industrial proletariat. The working class, the blue-collar, the manual laborer, the skilled laborer, the tradesperson and the craftsperson who are always hard at work, building and maintaining the infrastructure of this country. 

I am also continually exploring the line between what is considered masculine and feminine, searching for new ways that my work can collapse traditional American male and traditional American female roles. This country has long since become a melting pot of people from around the world and I wholeheartedly embrace the potential for a harmonious heterogeneous society. Ultimately my artwork remains both autobiographical and visionary, proposing that individuals can be all-purpose; simultaneously embracing their history, culture, race and gender, while respecting and participating in that of the people around them.

Website:  http://www.jacksonmartin.com

Vladimir Nedkov

Statement: My work explores the relationship between shape and color in different mediums, largely drawing inspiration from architecture, geometry, as well as growing up homosexual in Eastern Europe. By painting on top of images or manual manipulation, I de-contextualize and re-contextualize the original story and shift the viewer's approach and perception of what is.

Website:  http://www.vladonedkov.com

Sunyoung Park

Statement: I am exploring the space between different two worlds such like warm and cold, death and life, East and West, and, disgust and beauty. To see the in between spaces creates awkward imagining that are difficult for me to explain. I have been thinking these mixed and vague images that I found in-between spaces are related with recent society. The world is mixed now. The culture barriers are collapsing, ambiguous gender roll in society and people are attracted by virtual reality like a fake Instagram account. I am unconsciously affected by this environment. And I consciously try to represent this world through my work.

Website: www.park-sunyoung.com

Shevare Perry

Statement: Shevare' is an artist, story teller, poet, and fashion educator who explores creative expression through the overlap of visual and theatrical art, fashion, and beauty. In her latest project, The Adventures of Wynk, all of her interests come together. Using 3D mix media collages complemented with a poetic journey through time, Shevare' highlights her main character's journey of self discovery and women icons and how they succeeded.

Website: http://www.theadventuresofwynk.com

James Scheller

Statement: I work exclusively in glass; Kilnforming and casting at my Macoupin Prairie Glassworks studio in Staunton, Illinois near my childhood home of Mt. Olive. In September 2018, After 27 years, I moved from my forest home and studio - Chehalem Mountain Glassworks in Scholls, Oregon.  
After a long career as an engineer and technologist I was taken hostage by glass kilnforming in 2012. I have dedicated myself to my craft and art. Extensive study of and experimentation with the medium is a passion and healthy addiction.  
I enjoy creating pieces with depth and weight. Glass sheets, crushed glass (frit) and glass slabs (billets) are contained within dams and hand built plaster silica molds then fired to over 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. Fired works are then extensively coldworked for hours to achive the final finish. 
Inspiration comes from a fascination or forms, textures and colors. 
The most subtle details of natural and man-made objects, and objects imagined are studied. The engineer joins glass, heat and gravity to capture thoughts and memories. The works invite one to gaze inside and view the flows of the once molten glass; to get lost in the dance of light and color.

Website: http://Www.jimscheller.com

Snail Scott

Statement: THE “ARMATURE” SERIES

This body of work, developed over many years, presents the concept of engineering as a deeply rooted humanistic endeavor - an extension of the opposable thumb, our lever to move the world: wishful thinking made manifest. Through the processes of making, we attempt to fabricate the reality we desire. In principle, it stands as a rational approach to practical goals, yet the impulse for engineering may be driven by un-examined, intangible aspirations, in which the practice of making is merged with the process of becoming. 

Gears and sprockets suggest process; levers and knobs, a means of action, antennas and airfoils, for reaching beyond. These forms present a “self-created self” - the bootstrap creation of a higher existence built on cockeyed optimism and elbow grease, assembled at some tinkerer’s workbench of the soul.

Tom Sontag

Statement: Wood is a beautiful material and in my work I simply try to highlight this fact. I make functional objects that are meant to be touched and used.

Amy Usdin

Statement: My work redefines aging fiber nets through needle-weaving and knotting. Their worn imperfections are integrated into the new, and the transformation becomes part of a continued narrative. Weaving within and across their fixed borders allows for long, reflective periods of creation informed by the familial moments and unexpected associations that their previous lives evoke. The tactile qualities inherent in the threads, enhanced by the life experience of each worn object, invite viewers to imbue these pieces with associations and impressions of their own. As such, the work becomes less about specific memories than memory itself.

Website:  http://www.amyusdin.com

Vanessa Viruet

Statement: My current artistic practice involves material explorations and the language of flags. The emblem of a flag is used to construct meaning and identity serving as a mirror for examining the cultural self. By using transparent or reflective fabric to create a flag, my work suggests flags are not just about who they represent but also about what they reflect. The act of deconstructing and reconstructing a Puerto Rican and an American flag to create a new one, embodies the struggle of assimilation?of losing and rebuilding a home. Several of my flag works were created with the help of my family of non-artists and speak of cultural pride and interconnectedness. Their participation created a space for discussion about the visual indicators of heritage, including race, symbols, tradition, and more importantly, whether cultural legacy comes solely from one?s birthright. 
My research has lead me to consider the connotations of flags in noun (flag) and verb form (flagging). This has brought me to the fringes of culture - car racing, gang banging, and gay cruising.? where flags and flagging have a prominent role and are a visual tool for examining human relations. In both gang and gay culture, the feminine patterned bandana fabric has served as a subversive tool for identifying, or flagging, oneself. In gang culture, bandana colors or clothing color is one of the most visible displays of allegiance to a particular gang. In 1970?s gay culture the Hanky Code was invented to secretly display ones queer identity at a time it was illegal to be openly gay. Flag making creates an opportunity for conversations about boundaries, race and identity relevant to our culture today. The value of art rests in its ability to communicate across barriers

Website:  http://Www.vanessaviruet.com