There are a few important themes I am exploring in my work right now. One is the energy of old churches, which I loved so much I decided to do research on them and visit as many as possible to see what I could learn. One theory I discovered that I am particularly excited about is that 1000 year old European churches were purposefully constructed on top of underground currents of waterways and fault lines so that when you enter the space, you get an energetic charge. I wanted to use that principle in my art exhibitions, to see if I could connect what I do to what is already there in the earth, and possibly make me and other people feel it.
I am interested in circulation of all kinds. Like the underground currents of old churches, I see painting, and many other activities we bring our full attention to, like singing or even dishwashing, as ways to increase circulation or even health. When thinking about fault lines as a kind of weakness that is actually good and necessary for the vitality of the planet, I thought that naming personal faults in community could be a way of shaking hands with ones demons, and maybe coming to a place of acceptance with them.
So, for my upcoming June exhibition at COD, A Porous Space, I asked professional dowsers, a couple who live in upstate New York who helped me with my September exhibit at Heskin Contemporary in NY, as well as my 2007 show at the University of Indiana, Kokomo, to probe specific underground energies of the Gahlberg Gallery space. They use traditional divination methods to measure the unseen energies created by underground waterways and fault lines. I want to poetically demonstrate how geological weakness can be seen as analogous to human behavior and human need for interdependence.
