Time Talisman & Beelzebub Charm | for Amuleto
Artist Statement
These works are touchpoints in history from my family and place.
The drawing records my response to a wood chip that released itself from the wall of a log home situated on a piece of land in Wisconsin that was once part of my great great
grandfather’s farm. By my estimate, the wood chip is at least 300 years old. It inserted itself into my presence at what felt like an opportune time and so I incorporated it into my daily drawing practice
The rubbing records another engagement with that same log wall and is made using charcoal created during one of my smoke firings on the property. The image formed by the rubbing seems to reference the strata and layers in the land surrounding the home; land which holds fossils formed in the seas that covered it millions of years ago, rocks left untouched by subsequent glaciers.
In smokefirings I perform on these lands, I collaborate with fire which records its traces on clay, including on the small “Beelzebub charm” – named in reclamation of a nickname my father had for me. “Beelzebub” is a name for the Devil while “Charm” draws on the positivity of fires’ healing and cleansing powers. The process references the impact of fire in my own and my family’s history as well as the force of nature’s elements which we only control to some degree.
This place has a complex history, and that of my family is only one of the stories that could be told. These works attempt to engage with this multiplicity.
Time Talisman Diptych:
Part 1: drawing of a chip of wood from the wall of my great great grandfather’s log farm house that fell off as I passed by.
Graphite on previously printed art paper
Approx 6.75” x 5”
Part 2: Charcoal rubbing of the log wall at the farm using charcoal created during one ofmy smoke firings on the property on found paper.
Smoke-fired Charcoal on found paper
20” x 16”
Beelzebub Charm
Porcelain vessel Smoke Fired on Hach Hill
3” diameter x 2” high
Beelzebub Charm at The Franklin Outdoor. Chicago