USA Projects

I propose a sculpture installation entitled Message in a Bottle/ Scent of Magnolia that combines disparate materials of stone, concrete glass and aluminum in a visual narrative that uses southern landscapes as a metaphor for change, lost and reclamation of natural, cultural and environmental history.

In Message in a Bottle, heroic actions of 1961 Freedom Riders are celebrated as emblems of courage and action that altered existence and changed the cultural landscape of this country. Documented historical mug shots of Freedom Riders blanket the ground in a human quilt like structure of digital photographs that are printed and constructed on aluminum sheets and fabricated into eight modular sections. The eight modular sections configure into a circle measuring fifteen feet in diameter. This aluminum circle for which I seek funding, of $10,000 becomes the supporting base and conceptual foundation for this installation project.

The faces of diverse individuals, and southern landscapes, are juxtaposed imagined stone and glass sculptural seed pods of the Magnolia grandiflora. The stone sculptural pods take on a persona of both seed pod and human flesh.  Discarded bottles haplessly left to decompose on the earth’s surface become the signifying elements of chance and change in the installation.

I’ve collected old bottles from the forest floor, likely discarded in the general time period of the 1960’s. Interlaced throughout frontal head shoots are pictorial landscapes that were documented over time, marked by neglect and beauty as the earth tries to reclaim and decompose intractable materials. The lament of the moment, bewails the absence of current visionaries and faces of courage to supplant the 1961 Freedom Riders’ action. New faces are needed in the fight for the survival of natural resources and earth’s environment? 

The message is brought to us by an inanimate object that becomes animate and alive speaking to our survival and stewardship on earth.

This project is an important signifier of future conservation and acknowledgement of human responsibility of past and future actions. Your contributions will enable the production and completion of this important project. 

 When you give you will ensure the continued production of meaningful contemporary art and in addition, all contributions over $50 will receive personal gift cards I’ve designed, acknowledging your support. Contributions of $350 will receive a sketch/print. Anyone who contributes $500 or more will be given a monoprint. Contributors of $1000 will be given a print (these monoprints can be viewed in a Showcase on this site). Thank you for your support; you are the important sustaining link for this project and to the future.  

Together, we can make this happen.