PROJECTS > The Thin Line Between One Thing and Another (2020)

I can’t stop behaving as if perfection is an achievable goal
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
49” x 26”
2019
I can’t stop behaving as if perfection is an achievable goal
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
Detail.
2019
Every morning, I wake up wanting
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
20.5” x 37.5”
2019
Wasting my limited time, trying to get more time
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
37” x 39”
2019
My body is mostly empty space
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
20” x 35”
2019
Wasting my limited time, trying to get more time
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
Detail.
2019
Swinging endlessly between stress and boredom
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
49” x 26”
2019
This is the result of years of bad habits
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
30” x 38”
2019
The delicate work of staying in contact with reality
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
38” x 25”
2019
Bound by the dreaded experience
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
2019
Bound by the dreaded experience
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
Detail
2019
Renouncing the roots while grasping at the branches
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
25” x 36”
2019
A temporary respite from never-ending change
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
2019
That which separates becomes the link
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
30” x 38”
2019
That which separates becomes the link
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
Detail.
2019
Multiple works
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
Installation shot.
2019
Resisting the craving for novelty
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
36” x 26”
2019
I had all of today's thoughts yesterday and the day before
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
28” x 44”
2019
Trying to have a certain ind of experience
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
32” x 37”
2019
Maintaining the ice tray
Toilet paper tubes, embroidery floss and empty space.
23” x 37”
2019
Multiple works
Installation detail
2019

The Thin Line Between One Thing and Another
January 16 - February 15, 2020
Finlandia University Gallery, Finnish-American Heritage Center
Hancock, Michigan

The thread and cardboard works in The Thin Line Between One Thing and Another embody the adage of “the finger pointing at the moon.” Each textile-like sculpture is a literal record of daily meditation and a metaphor for the process of thinking. While the titles use language to pinpoint particular thoughts, experiences and observations, the objects themselves operate on a phenomenological level. They use a formal visual vocabulary as rhetoric to address the process of thinking, recurring thoughts and insights into the nature of the human mind via my own mind.

Further, the completed works function as icons for contemplating the relationship between repetition and change and the ongoingness of contemplative inquiry. I want viewers to slow down and look. The chaotic, tangled color that appears to rest on the surface is integral to the structure; the hand-knotted threads hold the individual cells—each full of empty space—together. Yet, the perception of movement, growth or collision in the color fields is both real and illusory, as the structure is entirely composed of the same repeating units.

I don’t believe in the false distinction of the Sacred and the Profane or the separation of human beings into parts: psychological, emotional, intellectual and physical. Nor do I believe that color and decoration are superficial. In the history of textiles, style and pattern are often intimately connected to structure. Similarly, our internal lives are deeply embedded in our bodies. I assert, unapologetically, that process is content.