I create because I love the process of taking existing objects and turning them into the characters that roam, rent-free, in my imagination.
You decide who will appear in Artforum Magazine, take home $25,000, and display their work at The Art of Elysium's Salon!
My favorite type of art are my sculptures of animals made from old broken toys. I love giving these little fragments of childhood a new home in something much larger - it feels like the energy of play they have encapsulated merges into one solid new structure and I love that process.
Where do you find inspiration?I find inspiration in so many settings. I have a real interest in breaking a singular object down into its shape or texture and imagining how it might be used elsewhere as part of a larger whole. A plastic owl, for example, once turned upside down and beheaded became the perfect jowls for a statue of a dog I was working on. Inspiration can come from the smallest or the largest objects - it’s just about reframing how we perceive them.
What would you do with $25,000?I’d like to get started on some new collaborative projects that work with other artists using found objects. I call this whole idea contemporary taxidermy in that we are using not what nature has left, but what we have left on the planet and turning it into sculptures of the wildlife around us.
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