My goal for my work is to expose and examine dominant values. I believe that art, at its best, speaks in an iconoclastic voice while maintaining compassion for real people living messy lives. One of my favorite books, “The Theory of the Leisure Class” by Thorstein Veblen, shows how creative projects can provide necessary perspective on unexamined patterns.
In his book, Veblen explains the motivation behind the unproductive economics of leisure activities and conspicuous consumption in our society. It reveals common phony behaviors and the necessary role they play in social settings. His work helped me to understand certain unconscious actions by myself and others as concurrently absurd and forgivable.
I hope to also uncover the unseen through my work. I find myself most attracted to overlooked inefficiencies, like the unpicked fruit on a neighbor’s apple tree or the valuable materials in our municipal waste streams.