Notes on The Practice

A component of my art practice is altar making in the spirit of Betye Saar but with the ephemeral nature of  Barbara Ellmann’s Flower Altar. The installation of the altar is a vehicle for engaging the view and an opportunity to document the materials which are then collaged into prints. The exhibition component is also an opportunity to engage with a community and have the community contribute to the imagery collected.  

“I like things with religious overtones. As a child, I collected random things and built altars in my room or in the backyard. In my twenties, I maintained an altar of small objects, some of which were intended for rituals—bells and dorje and such—but others were entirely mundane: a small teapot, a wooden bowl, pieces of rope, and stones and twigs I found in the forest that had some undetermined meaning. I like things that evoke a certain amount of religiosity: Buddha-shaped cocktail glasses, anything shaped like a cow, statues of Chinese warriors.”

From Object & Joy in My Junk Tastes Like Flowers