SHELL GAMES
The cultural anthropology of Pacific Rim societies reveals both collision and synthesis. Thus, a visual mixing of metaphors, if you will, is the method I've used to convey this dynamic. The Chinese caltrop, associated with beauty and cleverness, intertwines with imagery of juggling balls, prostitution, salmon eggs, a cascade of abalone, guns and pipes, and the railroad. We are at a crossing, watching a shell game in-progress.
Layering materials, in the form of collage, refers to the fragmentation resulting from collision, and also the re-configuration that illuminates synthesizing elements. Synthesizing produces insight and new ideas. The past still exists within the present, but the impetus is to move forward, into the mythical future.
I would like to give special thanks to artist Willa Briggs and to the Hoopa Valley Tribal Arts Center, for allowing me access to their printing press, where I pulled the dry points.