The Cedarville Review 2018

ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS 67 TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF. My wife, Britt, and I moved to Cedarville last summer to pursue the job opportunity of teaching sculpture and ceramics at the university. I graduated with my B.F.A. in sculpture from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2011 and my M.F.A. in Studio Art from The University of Maryland in 2017. I am an active artist and have been blessed to have shown my work in Taiwan, Bulgaria, and throughout the United States. I also have made public commissions in Australia, California, New York, and Washington, D.C.. While God has blessed my creative work, hard times and periods of waiting have been part of my art too. One piece that showcases a hardship is No Place Like Home: All Dressed Up With No Place To Go (2013). In 2012, I applied to five M.F.A. graduate programs around the country. In the coming months, letter by letter came in and I had received five letters of rejection. I felt all dressed up with no place to go. This piece was done in response to the situation. I dressed up as if I was ready to go somewhere important and place myself in awkward, hard places for a period of time. With this particular performance, I was bound to the side of a barn for an extended period of time. Another piece in which I explore themes of my own identity is Wrestling with My Roots (2015). On July 9, 2015, South Carolina’s governor signed a law that called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds and sent it to a museum. I wanted to speak to this story even though it was an aggressive yet fragile one. I have seen and thought about this flag for much of my life. The material I use in my work allows me to navigate what I believe, what I am feeling. So, in the end, I can place the concept on the material and they stand together, they collaborate. How I decided to display the piece is the most important. I decided to roll it up, to make it feel intimate, small, and like it’s hiding in a corner. Like it’s saying “don’t look at me, please don’t see me, I’m ashamed.” An artwork that explores my responsibility to my faith is Torn Between One Way and Another (2016). I CNC engraved the Ten Commandments using Ancient Hebrew onto reclaimed corkboard panels.