Borrowed from Social Media, Image taken in Peru,
Painting on canvas, Acrylic and oil from beach, "Shiro Kuma Hanashimashou = Lets Talk Polar Bear, Japanese Characters"
artstar mmxvii
Sea star wasting disease or starfish wasting syndrome is a disease of starfish and several other echinoderms that appears sporadically, causing mass mortality of affected starfish.[1] There are around 40 different species of sea stars that have been affected by this disease. As one who enjoys surfing and starfish- I miss seeing these creatures and am curious- what's next?
Preceding the inauguration of D.T., I began making this sculpture in manner to protest blatant fascism as even the National Endowment of the Arts is threatened by the administration. What if 97% of science is wrong? What ignorance justifies a federal government increasingly run of billionaires conquering with hoarded tax $ against terrorism ending in oil deals? The new republican regime promotes nuclear power and even limits NASA from posting images with "political agenda" proving climate change, so burning of fossil fuels is no threat.
If I have the funds, I will be bringing this paper mache' painted plaster, recycled redwood sculpture to the Earth march taking place at the Albino House in Washington, April 22, 2017. I'd like to display this sculpture on the street and in galleries to accompany any publication promoting alternatives to nuclear power at least gaining perspectives besides the predicted sixth known global mass extinction. Fukushima is still fully spewing radioactive wast into the ocean at "unimaginable levels after a triple meltdown in 2011". -Fox News (one of the only alleged "real news" sources accepted by D.T.). Though there is no proven correlation to why the immune system of primitive species are being compromised to specific bacteria living on echinoderms, it is still a question of wether we are responsible for the decline by global warming. "Will our children or theirs enjoy an abundant world of healthy eco systems and diversity?"-sounds like a cliche', besides the norms of killing for profitable resource. Rather than protest the new administration while imagining beyond apocalyptic prophecy, replaced anthropomorphized Icons of faith will not save animals currently being effected before their extinction, or rather help me go to heaven, but if to assume all animals as gods- they might have a better chance in redirected neural pathways of human kind. Perhaps I am just toying with parody in my convictions as therapy for now.
“Returning Gold to the Sun” was first shown at the Bolinas Museum in January 2015, in collaboration with underwater field recorder Douglas Quinn. This site specific, multi-sensory, black-lit, recycled redwood installation utilizes light, painting and sculpture to encompass audio and video from within holes in the walls (Top Left).
This painted Mandala, highlighted blacklight activated painting is the focal component of the room and first thing to be seen in the dark of a 12’x12’x8’ tall black‑lit room which can be entered from behind a black curtain. As a spectator making sense to what is being displayed before them, a visually askewed black hole cut to center of the convex wall amplifies a sound loop. While the glowing circular image of the sculpture’s center entices viewers to peak inside its cut‑out abyssal space, the sound of chattering teeth (codes of ice‑seeking walrus) and frequency of harp seals submerge the viewer. So.... this curved redwood sculpture/installation is visually simple; a 6’ diameter, glowing abstracted chiaroscuro fractal painting seems to be floating apart from the wall. Longer adjusted to the darkened room, the phosphorescent painting is revealed to be on a swelled, impregnated-like wall sculpture. The 3‑dimensional curve of the wall becomes apparent as you walk around the room. In further sense of the dimension of this piece, it is revealed that the floating painting is also contoured to a geometric pattern made of individual recycled redwood pieces forming to a concave part of the wall.
The second of three components incorporated into the interior of the gallery walls is in a cut slit in the wall. Bottle caps collected from Ocean Beach are backlight by fluorescent tubes framed from behind the faux wall.
Adjacent to the enlarged urchin was a 43”x32” constructed sea turtle shell covered in an elaborate pattern of pinecone shingles with an 8” double ended blown glass bottle embedded in it’s back. From inside, a monitor streamed a loop of a mud‑painted couple slowly leaning in a kissing in meditation posture on the Bolinas Lagoon. Headphones are attached streaming a continuous loop of frogs from the Bolinas sewer ponds. This can be shown independent of the installations in future exhibitions.