Safety and Danger, Part 2

This piece then evolved into an exercise in turning a structure/shelter into a house/home. Using the same processes I have used to enlarge my figure drawings,  I began to furnish the home with paper objects.  I added interior walls, an exterior skin, a paper hardwood floor. 

As the interior became more accomodating, the exterior views were soothed.  An occasional car crash, buzzing street light and barking dog were the only sources of calamity.

Shelter had become home.





Safety and Danger, installation view
mixed media
100" x 90" x 120"

adding walls, floor and ceiling




bed, photocopies, watercolor and wheatpaste
78" x 48"



interior view



table, photcopies, watercolor and wheatpaste

96" x 55"



condemned house

Safety and Danger, part 1

The notion of a interior space as a refuge from a tumultuous exterior led to the idea that I would create a site specific piece in my Fine Arts Work Center studio.  Within the 12' x 18' studio, I would build a 8' x 10' paper shack.  Surrounding the shack on every studio wall would be scenes of chaos and anxiety. Inside the shack would be only windows, walls, ceiling.

The piece was called Safety and Danger.

framing the paper walls. 

I have since been able to suspend the walls from a ceiling,

eliminating the need for an internal frame.

cutting windows

a paper wall "skin" being fabricated in my studio

one studio wall consisted of crying riot police.



riot, ink on paper
48" x 96"





Another wall saw the hellhounds return in a 12' x 18' collage:





Cerberus II, photocopies, watercolor, wheatpaste and spraypaint on paper
84" x 72"



the third wall depicted a scene in a city park



dusk to dawn, photocopies, wheatpaste, watercolor and spraypaint on paper,
120" x 144"



detail

the last wall suggested someone falling from the sky.