artist statement
We are living in a time when great changes in the way that we understand and interact with the world around us are needed. Environmental destruction, climate change, social, economic and political injustices, human rights abuses, poverty, starvation, and war have come to seem inevitable and unchangeable. This seeming inevitability stems, in great part, from our inability to fully understand and name the underlying causes of these enormous problems.
As humans we understand the world around us in the context of our cultural, historical, social, political and ideological systems. These systems make up a powerful hegemony that determines the ways that we define or name our experiences. If we can’t name something it is very difficult to understand, question, or change it.
One way that people learn ideological and cultural values and systems is through story. Stories are told to children to teach them to understand their experiences and to interact within cultural and ideological systems. Throughout our lives stories are told to us by the people we know, by the media, by educators, by politicians etc. These stories can reinforce hegemonic forces or they can reinterpret experiences in ways that counter these forces. In this way stories can actually work to challenge and change hegemony.
My recent art works all address the power of story. Some works such as my glue art series, address the power of story by suggesting connections that can lead into story. Some works reflect, retell, and reframe old stories in new ways. Even work that I do not set out to create as stories often begins to suggest stories as I develop them or when I look back on them.
Other works, such as the series of “Shambala” story cards I recently created, speak directly to the creation of new stories. My Shambala story cards are based on an ancient prophecy about a group of Shambala warriors who will arise, and using the weapons of compassion and insight into the radical interdependence of all life, make the cultural and political changes that we need. These warriors won’t come from outside and they won’t be recognizable by uniforms or flags; they will work from within to dismantle power systems and create a positive, life affirming culture for all living beings.
I strongly believe that the most powerful stories are ones that are shared and created by working together. Thus, my work attempts to suggest story and to create a space where new stories can be developed as a dialogue between myself and the viewers of my work. I strive to pose questions, and to offer suggestions rather than to didactically preach solutions. It is my hope that people will take what they find in my work and use it as a small step on their own path to becoming Shambala warriors.