statement

My new work employs both drawing and digital imaging technologies to explore the convergence of sport and art. I make work with the aid of a drawing device that is attached to a bicycle. The resulting work exists as a seismic series of drawings, which end up being an indexical record of my travels. These travels consist of training rides and short commutes, which essentially become training records, for more specific longer multi-day tours. The properties of this work engage the bicycle as a vehicle for expression, mark making, movement and endurance, while exploring ways cycling can potentially influence me both visually and physically.  

I hold a background in printmaking, new media, and drawing. I embrace all of these tools to express my desire to explore my relationship with the landscape I interact with and inhabit. The wilderness became the impetus for my previous work and continues to be a driving force. In general, I'm interested in creating work to draw the viewer closer, to create an open space for contemplation, which the body and mind can then occupy. Drawing is a medium offering an open field for innovative practice, in which ideas can directly emerge and change with relative ease, further lending itself readily to the experimental and theoretical.

The device I use absorbs and relays motion, imprinting the drawing surface with marks that rely on chance and environmental elements. The specific environmental elements that become contributing factors within the works are ultimately changes in terrain and road conditions. By forfeiting full control of the drawing apparatus and letting the pen move with the rocking and vibrations of the bicycle, I resign some authorial responsibility within this work. Pushing the boundaries of how drawing is made, understood, and disseminated is something I am deeply interested in. I hope to encourage viewers to appreciate and share the joy of my bicycle rides, however esoteric that connection may at first appear.

Much of my studio practice is focused on the theoretical framework of "emptying" the studio space. This concept has become a meditative reduction, an erasure, and an attempt at drawing away from the world beyond the studio. Within this space the time for new beginnings or endings is made more present, more attainable, and the focus it fosters becomes an additional tool to aid creation. In turn each drawing becomes a performance in itself, testing the limitations of the bike, the riders endurance and the drawing.

bio

born: 1975, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

education

Washington State University, MFA, 2010
Black Hills State University, BS Ed. Art, 2008

selected group shows

South Dakota Art Museum, Heart to Heart, Brookings, South Dakota, 2015
Jan Brandt Gallery, Atlas: Print Exchange, Bloomington, Illinois, 2014
South Dakota Art Museum, University and College Art Faculty Show, Brookings, South Dakota, 2014
Mighty Tieton 10x10x10x Exhibition, Tieton, Washington, 2013