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Free Body Diagram, 2024
Painted steel, wool yarn, found rocks, and wall holds
36” x 33” x 6”
“To love purely is to consent to distance, it is to adore the distance between ourselves and that which we love.” Quote by Simone Weil in “Gravity and Grace”
“In physics and engineering, a free body diagram (FBD; also called a force diagram) is a graphical illustration used to visualize the applied forces, moments, and resulting reactions on a body in a given condition.” - Wikipedia
“In anatomy, a potential space is a space between two adjacent structures that are normally pressed together. Many anatomic spaces are potential spaces, which means that they are potential rather than realized.” - Wikipedia
Iron Red Bulge, 2024
Painted steel plate, wool yarn, and nails
12” x 12” x 2”
Blue Stone Bulge, 2024
Painted steel plate, wool yarn, and nails
12” x 12” x 2”
Docking, 2024
Painted steel and painted plaster
31” x 15” x 11”
Cradles
Inspired by Calder's mobiles, these Cradles balance on the wall, typically a rock climber's handhold. In these works, gravity plays the role of the trickster, being both friend and foe. These sculptures use balance, tension, and composition to reflect the nature and status of our multitude of relationships. Intuitively and playfully created, these cradles hold space.
Let, 2023
Painted steel, wool blend yarn, found rocks, and wall holds
58” x 91” x 4”
I kept trying to name this artwork using previous naming protocol, but nothing fit. It was because this piece embodies presence, and it needed a name like a person needs a name. To me, “Let” is a monosyllable that could be akin perhaps to a name like the Egyptian God “Set”. Saying the word “Let” needs the tongue to move ever so subtly, curling back a bit, like the pointer finger curling back to say “come hither”, but with a little space to let the vowel sound, and breath, through between touches. “Let” is to allow, or to not prevent, flow to be.
While making this sculpture, the creative mantra was to “capture more space”. It took time both in the studio and in my own life to slowly let the piece take form, to become the key to the feeling locked within my heart, to let spaciousness just be okay again. While the piece rests on the wall’s embrace, it is also alive in a way. The ephemerality of the knit continues to capture more space over time as the knit relaxes, stretches, and holds more of the wall within its own embrace. Reciprocity.
Waveform, 2023
57” x 113” x 36”
Painted steel, wool/acrylic blend yarn, and painted handholds
Commissioned piece for collector in Santa Monica, CA
Verbunden: 6+8, 2022
84” x 100” x 37”
Painted steel, wool yarn, painted hydrocal plaster, and found rock
“Verbunden” is a German word that means “tied together”. The Austrian-Israeli philosopher Martin Buber uses this word in his book I and Thou to mean “wrapped with gauze”. He uses this term in discussing how human beings relate to one another in vulnerability, how we come to truly encounter one another, and how we grow together in reciprocity and inclusivity.
This piece explores gravity in relationships—the pulling down and rest of being grounded and the pulling up and weightlessness we strive for in the pursuit of dreams. This piece represents a friendship with one of my best friends, showing the push and pull we offer one another, taking turns being the grounded one and the one reaching ever upwards. To be honest, I don’t know if I’m the blue or the orange in this piece, but I think the confusion is part of it - we take turns playing different roles, arguing different points at different times both in favor and against gravity. In the dialogue, “Verbunden” occurs.
Verbunden: 4+6, 2022
42” x 31” x 13”
Painted steel, wool yarn, painted plaster, and found rocks
“Verbunden” is a German word that means “tied together”. Martin Buber uses this word in his book “I and Thou” to mean “wrapped with gauze”. He uses this term in discussing how human beings relate to one another in vulnerability, how we come to truly encounter one another, and how we grow together in reciprocity and inclusivity. This sculpture embodies “Verbunden” with the white wool yarn wrapping the steel bodies together in a gauzy manner.
“Vulnerability” comes from the root word “to wound”, also meaning “woundable”. In a vulnerable act with another person, we share our wounds—which is inherently risky and uncomfortable—and when this wound is received with care and not a jab, we generously wrap one another in gauze, thus tying us closer together so that the healing leads to bonds of trust. This is how Love is made.
Those who have been in love (not only romantic love, but a love of mutual trust and care) know the boundlessness we tap into, remembering that we can fly! We feel the wind in our hair and over our arms as we soar through the air, trusting that the one who tossed us up will be there to catch us when we land. It is in this trust of both the leaping and the landing that we remember we can fly.
The mythology of the Cradle sculpture series: The steel is the person, the yarn is the relationship, the wall is the life to which one clings, and the rock is the core, or the soul, of the person.
According to one theory of the Enneagram, a personality typing system, our personalities are created as a defense mechanism to protect our souls. This sculpture shows how the personalities of Type 4 and Type 6 manifest and how they can healthfully pull the other into the depth of their own soul with courage and play.
The mythology of the Cradle sculpture series: The steel is the person, the yarn is the relationship, the wall is the life to which one clings, and the rock is the core, or the soul, of the person.
The Type 4 is represented by a deep weight, a soul that can only be reached at the bottom of the Ocean of Melancholy, through which is a petrified forest of Soul, kind of like the petrified forest in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
The Type 6 is represented by a coddling cradle that protects the soul from pain with the knitted blanket comfort zone.
When relating to one another in health, the Type 6 creates a safe place for the Type 4 to feel deeply by taking on a little bit of the melancholy—enough to not sink the Type 6 but enough to let the Type 4 deep sea dive with courage. The Type 6 is playfully liberated by the Type 4 who pulls the Type 6 out of its comfort zone so they may know that it’s safe to be out in the open and fully experience the world.
When tied together (Verbunden), the 4 and 6 rejuvenate, liberate, and celebrate one another by bringing us closer to our Soul that is curious, creative, and life-giving breath.
Natural Cradle No. 1, 2022
Rusted steel and bare wool yarn
36" × 33" x 29"
Natural Cradle No. 2, 2022
Rusted steel and bare wool yarn
33” × 19" × 23"
Cradle No. 14, 2022
Painted steel and wool yarn
13” x 9” x 8”
Cradle No. 12, 2022
Painted steel and wool/cashmere blend yarn
8” x 8” x 7”
Cradle No. 11, 2022
Painted steel, wool and bamboo blend yarn, and a rock
9” x 9” x 9”
Self-Portrait: Play, 2022
Steel, hydrocal plaster, plywood, and paint
21” x 16” x 16”
Cradle No. 6, 2022
Painted steel, wool yarn, plaster handhold, and a rock
19” x 20” x 9”
Cradle No. 7, 2022
Transitional Sculpture (Wool yarn, nail, and metal stamps; 4” x "4” x1” —> 4” x 6” x 3” ) and Performance (Video: 01:33)
Flagging, 2022
Stainless steel, wool yarn, plaster handhold and steel
17” x 8” x 5”
“A technique called flagging allows you to use that free-hanging foot as a counterbalance to make the next move, gain more reach, or prevent a barndoor swing.” - excerpt from www.climbing.com
How Much Does a Soul Weigh, 2021
Copper, wool yarn, plaster handhold, and a rock of choice
14” x 15” x 11”
grey is Good, 2021
Stainless steel, wool yarn, and painted plaster handhold
23” x 23” x 2.5”
“Greed…is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.” - Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (1987).
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1973)
Out Stretched, 2021
Painted steel, wool yarn, and plaster handhold
11” x 10” x 8”
Six Generations, 2022
Steel, yarn, plaster, and paint
65” x 77” x 50”
This sculpture is a series of steel bodies that balance off of one another up to the plaster handhold in the wall. The piece is called “Six Generations” because there are six degrees of balance happening—the Royal blue steel rod hangs on the wall from the handhold, the light blue steel rod holds to that one by the golden yellow yarn connection, the light green circle hangs off of that one, the two curved white pieces hang from that one, and the mobile created from a yellow rod holding two identical pieces hangs from there.
The sculpture is about what we pass down and what has been passed down to us. This could be generational wealth, generational trauma, good genes, bad memes, addiction, your nose, my laugh, etc—in one word: Generativity.
In short, this is a term coined by Erik Erikson to discuss the role of people in the later years of their lives when they shift from focusing on themselves into an epoch of legacy—passing down wisdom to the younger generations.
We are in a pivotal moment currently where we must trust both our elders who hold many lifetimes of wisdom while also honoring the youth who wield the rapid aptitude required to understand, utilize, and master new technologies that continue to change humanity by the year, the day, and the minute.
Truly, this piece is an homage to those who came before, those who are here now, and those who are to come—and our inherent connection to our ancestors and descendants. No matter a biological or adopted lineage, we are family: connected and balancing to this perpetuation of time by the truth that we are alive today and must fight to live for a better tomorrow.
Cross Hatching, 2022
Painted steel, plaster, oyster, wool yarn, mason line, and polished hex bolts
63” x 31” x 15”
I made a cross in the studio this month. I’ve never made a cross in my art before. I suppose it ended up being a Lenten practice, although that may just be coincidence, but Spirit-led nevertheless. Over these past 40 days, I continue to be humbled by the slow pace of adulthood, learning that patience is how I let Grace enter my bloodstream. I keep learning that all Good things come with time, that love and trust need not just water and soil but time in order to grow. This learning about how Love is full of excitement and dancing but must be undergirded by stillness and breath, how it is bold yet tender, it is vulnerable and takes not just the leap of faith, but waits for the right time to be ready for a blip of that transformational Infinite Grace of Your Loving Mystery.
Although my piece is viewed as a cross at my height and orientation, it doesn’t mean it’s a cross for all heights and perspectives. Furthermore, my particular viewpoint obfuscates the sacred feminine oyster situated right in line with the steel rod. Both sacred objects are suspended, but interact with the wall and gravity differently, their dependence and points of contact/suspension differing. But it’s the space in between the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine, the Holy Saturday, between life and death, male and female, order and chaos, suffering and relief, beyond the binaries and dichotomies in Your deep and dark embrace where all is accomplished, that I come to You now, silently speaking, holding you as you hold me, to say “I Love You”. And You respond “Feed my sheep.” — From IG post on 4/15/2022: @connor_walden
Hold On, 2021
Painted steel, wool knitted sock, and painted plaster
26" x 32" x 6"
(yearn), 2021
Yarn, painted steel, bulb syringe, and plumb bob
48” x 24” x 9”
My friend held someone’s uterus once. It was dense, red, cold, and fit in the palm of her hand. The density contained the uterus’s propensity of strength, power, and vulnerability to expand, build, nourish, feed, hold, stretch, and push out a new life form. When a uterus is warm, dynamic, and alive, one never holds a uterus with one’s hands. It requires one’s own body to hold it with one’s muscles, tissue, and skin. A uterus floats in one’s abdomen, yet is grounded through one’s feet. Where is one’s center of gravity, one’s weight, one’s meaning? Hidden within, in the deepest recesses of our being, in the potential spaces between matter, this is where God resides: in between.
Satisfaction Atonement, 2021
Photograph, yarn, nails, string, and T-pins
55” x 60”
Wing Semaphore, 2021
Video and embroidery of flag semaphore on found denim shirt
Installation
In collaboration with Jacob Nordberg (IG: @jacobyart) and Doug Hatano (IG: @doughatano)
The participant is asked to signal a prayer using Flag Semaphore embroidered on the back of the denim shirt, a maritime language utilizing flags and one’s arms to signal strings of letters from boat to boat as a mode of communication when one’s radio is malfunctioning. This piece considers how technology influences one's relationship to prayer regarding communication latency, fidelity, and faith.
Read review by DARIA
Watch Video Here
Ho'oponopono Prayer, 2021
Felted wool yarn mounted on painted steel
14” x 10”
"Hoʻoponopono (ho-o-pono-pono) is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. Similar forgiveness practices were performed on islands throughout theSouth Pacific, including Samoa, Tahiti and New Zealand. Traditionally hoʻoponopono is practiced by healing priests or Kahuna lapaʻau among family members of a person who is physically ill. Modern versions are performed within the family by a family elder, or by the individual alone. Hoʻoponopono” is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as “mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness.” - https://www.rashani.com/about/hooponopono
The prayer is encoded in binary code on the felt fabric: I AM SORRY, PLEASE FORGIVE ME, THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU
Made while at Freya Residency in Seattle, WA. Photo by Keara Wilson
Can We Just Cuddle, 2019
Cot frame, prayer shawl, yarn box with yarn, and a candlelighter with bell snuffer covered in turmeric, used here for its anti-inflammatory properties
30" x 45" x 44"
Can we take a moment, to rest, to feel the weight of one another, the one we hold, the one who holds us. To feel the skin, to smell the fragrance, to breathe in their air. To remember a time that has never existed, to encounter a blip of eternity, effulgent graces swaddles. To close our eyes, as the night is at its darkest, to feel the warmth, the light, and the breathing of the creatures we hold, and the creatures that hold us. We hold one another, a reciprocity of cherishing this moment of respite, to regulate our hearts, so that we may be transformed. So here am I, a voice crying out in the wilderness: can we just cuddle?
Security Blankets, 2020
Wool yarn
18” x 18”
These knit security blankets use the binary code alphabet to encode the First Creation story in the Holy Bible and Torah—using the NRSV translation—across three blankets. The pink’s are 0’s and the blue’s are 1’s.
Untitled (Family Portrait), 2020
Wool yarn, string, and steel
Installation (roughly 200” x 2” x 100”)
“Untitled (Family Portrait)” uses two 13 foot steel rods and two 1 foot steel rods covered in knitting to create a mobile. The pink rod is connected to the ceiling via a golden yellow string whereas the blue rod touches the ground via the molding, ever so slightly, to stabilize the swinging of the sculpture. Shifting in weight, balance, and tension, the long rods lift each other up off the ground by being tied through yarn alone to the two small rods. This allows them mobility, both grounding and uplifting the rods to new heights, new beginnings, and new paths.
I AM THAT I AM, 2020
Paper bags, ink, and nails
12” x 64” x 6”
In response to LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner’s piece #IAMSORRY, https://labeoufronkkoturner.com/projects/iamsorry/
Photograph of Installation
Wing Semaphore, 2021
Embroidery of Flag Semaphore on found denim shirt
Participatory performance (work in progress)
42” x 35”
Send a message to someone who is gone
/ / /
My grandmother is buried on the other side of the lake. I got on Google Maps so that I could “walk” with her down the block, since she doesn’t get out much anymore. I went to Street View on 1st Ave S and held her hand as we walked.
As we approached a smoke shop, I heard her infamous sneeze—*sneeze*—followed by 6 more—*sneeze 6 times*—staying true to her tradition. She told me smoke shops are uncouth. I replied, Nana, what does that word even mean? She got into a prim and proper way, and told me that it’s the opposite of couth, which means well-mannered and refined. I responded to her puckered lips and side eyes with a laugh as we scrolled further.
At the end of the block, we stopped by the oriental rug gallery. She told me about her escapades with my granddad, as they traveled around the world. They loved bringing back decorative objects, so it was not surprising when they purchased a rug in Beijing to ship back to Seattle. The rug found itself in the entryway of my grandparent’s house. They moved out of their house on 16th Street in 2007, and I don’t know what happened to the rug. Perhaps it found a new home or maybe it was discarded like other memorabilia that couldn’t fit in my Nana’s new, tight space.
As we turned the corner, we saw the ferry departing. Every day the ferry comes and goes, taking more folks across the Puget Sound. Everyday, the memory of the Seattle Supersonics reverberates through the hearts of Seattleites, young and old. Grey’s Anatomy will never quite bring the same pride to the Pacific Northwest as the basketball stars once did. The voices of generations past echo in the distance, as the sounds of busses, vans, and programmers lull me into a humdrum of fake grass patches for yappy dogs of yuppies. The moniker of the largest forest in the world meditates on the word growth as if it were Om while the rest of us hear a petulant groan.
The time came for my grandmother and I to return. As I closed my laptop, she kissed me goodbye, leaving a little mark. She waved like a tree *do the Tree move*, as she always does; her trunk buried in the ground, as my roots one day will be too.
Haptic Icon, 2020
Wool yarn, steel, spray paint, and safety pin
6” x 1” x 1”
The viewer is invited to wrap their fingers around the object, and then unwrap and rewrap the painted steel rod, which comes from a previous series about construction-deconstruction-reconstruction.
Untitled (Self-Portrait), 2020
Wool yarn, steel, and spray paint
6" x 5” x 1”
Transitional Objects, 2019
Untitled (Petra), (2019)
Painted steel, string and yarn
Untitled (Tommy), (2019)
Painted steel and yarn
Touchy Subject, 2020
Steel and yarn
1” x 1” x 12”
Hold me and then put me back in my place.
Relic of Matt’s Headband, 2018
Matt’s headband
5” x 5” x 2”
A remnant from “The Apotheosis of Matt”, a performance on September 27th in which Matt transcended into veneration through his seeking holiness through exercising faith, forgiveness and charity.
Matt Raising Money for Access to Clean Water, 2018
Offering box, brass bowl, table, signage, donations and souvenirs
Installation
When you choose to make an offering into the offering box (suggested donation of $5), please take a souvenir to remind you of the gift you gave and the realization of Matt’s miracle. By donating to this cause, you will virtually be turning these souvenirs into water in Africa, similarly to Jesus turning water into wine in Cana. If you are still wondering what to do with your disposable income, the offering box is a great place to dispose of it.
Matt Raised $45.10 during the fundraiser.
2018 Shed Storage Unit: Constructed, 2017
Shed materials, tools, and found objects
2' x 3' x 8'
Here at Divinitive Logistics Solutions, we present to you a model of our new 2018 shed storage unit, available now for pre-order. In this package, we provide the materials for a shed, to be constructed for you at a young age by your parents and trusted community members - a shed to be used throughout your life to store memories and truths that confirm and perpetuate your objective existence. The internal space is assembled by family and community members as well, storing the tools used to build the structured space. The ladder creates a framework laid out for you to climb and place monuments to your personal ideological journey, giving you a chance to make this shed your own. But as you get older, you learn that you have the keys to this shed, and you have access to the tools added by you and other influential people in your life. So questions begin to surface: Why does this shed exist? Are the tools I placed in here really of my own volition? Do I even need this shed? What would my parents think if I tore this shed down and returned the package in exchange for cash or another piece of furniture? How come I see the shed as absurd, but my parents willingly and lovingly use their own shed given to them by their parents?
Trees, 2015
Wood, Tree Tags, Acrylic Paint
70" x 4" x 100"
2015
Voice(s), 2018
Audio and Light Installation
“In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing…it seemed to come from all directions at once…Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful Digory could hardly bear it.” - The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis
Before entering the space, the artist reads to us a section of text from a book. It sounds like a creation story of sorts, but not from a typical world religion or cosmology. The text elicits wonder and curiosity as it refers to sounds that created a world. While listening to the artist, there are faint sounds coming from within the space. As soon as the door to the exhibition space closes, Darkness swallows up the viewer’s field of vision, surrounding them with visual and proverbial isolation. Consciousness shifts as the viewer must trust their touch and listening to navigate the gallery space. Simultaneously, sounds come from nowhere and hover across the ears. Coming from somewhere above the viewer are that sound like hums or drones, similar to the tones from a hearing exam. Though they are the same volume and characterized by their soft diminishing voice, they have different notes and seem to come from around the room. There seems to be some sort of composition in place, but the notes as sporadic enough to seem algorithmic. The viewer sits on the wooden bench in the center of the room, and after 5 minutes of complete darkness, a shift occurs in the room. The rods and cones begin to recognize a dim blue light on the back wall—faint but present. Originally feeling lonely and isolated, the dim blue light quells these fears with an emerging unity.