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This article was originally published in our June 2000, Vol. 28 No. 2., “Woodfiring.”
My work is more mixed media now, with found objects. Currently, I'm working on a series of men with hats and guns. My work tends to be heavily laden with social commentary. My artistic heroes were writers such as Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair, and painters like Ben Shan and Jacob Lawrence. The contemporary issue for me is guns because people are getting shot every day. I'm an urban artist and I use urban issues from this city. I feel that housing, education, welfare, and child abuse are all issues that artists should have some voice in. Even if I didn't feel that way, my work would tend to be that way because of the materials I use.
I have a piece called "What's Going On" about isolated children, children made to sit and be quiet. It deals with the verbal and psychological abuse given to children. I try to get some kind of emotional and psychological environment involved, so my pieces aren't necessarily direct images. Children tend to read my work very well and respond to it. The ones who get it then explain it to their parents, who often shy away from such subjects.
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