“Sons of the Star”
A Body of Work on Isolation, Trauma, Yearning and the Pursuit of Spirit Featuring an Installation of Nine Hand-Painted, Cutout Figures
2008
Cast in the blue of starlight, a family of children are on the hunt by night in the desert, adorned in an assemblage of iconographic elements from multiple cultures.
Each child contains a poem or memory on their back side, encouraging viewers to shift their perspective by kneeling down to read the words depicted on each figurative work.
This exhibition was first shown at Galleri Urbane, Marfa, Texas, Summer of 2008 and went on to be selected for the 2009 Texas Biennial by Art in America Editor in Chief, Michael Duncan.
Selected Examples of Sons of the Star
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - 2009 Texas Biennial - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - 2009 Texas Biennial - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - 2009 Texas Biennial - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - 2009 Texas Biennial - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - First Born - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Second Sun - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Little Brother - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Alexa - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Only Son - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Rudaali Boom Boom - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Judith - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Rudaali Yum Yum - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - The God Particle - Bleach on Canvas, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
Sons of the Star - Detail - Acrylic on Luon, 2008
This body of work is a continuation of a searching for culture, a yearning for home, a practice of the play that children make in creating stories and building worlds. The work also serves as a processing of familial trauma, recalling the memory of traumatic events and imbuing that memory into each work as a container of lived experience.
-
This body of work catalogues a series of traumas endured in my childhood, distilled through poetry and memories, written on the back side of each free-standing figure. The figures are time capsules, vessels of lived-experience and pull from my childhood play with siblings where we would pull articles of clothing, prop and costume and create stories and build worlds, running through the woods of North Florida, creating micro cultural experiences with one another.
The work also explores themes of isolation, loneliness, not belonging to a tribe, being guided only by the stars. The work is a searching for new relationship to spirit, body, culture, Heaven and Earth.
-