2002 – 2006
Found Objects and Copper
Size varies dependent upon Site
Raven’s Dream was a 4-year project, which began as a way for me to explore what I called my Raven nature, referring to the archetype “Raven” that compulsively collects shiny baubles, including the souls of the recently dead to transport them to the next realm. Raven is found in traditional stories from around the world. In many Native American stories, Raven is the creator of all life, the bringer of light, a trickster amongst the living and deliverance after death, creating a full circle. Ravens live everywhere and survive the harshest of circumstances, but they continue the search for those “special gems”. If Raven were to have a truly wonderful dream, it would be to have access to all of the beautiful and bizarrely formed objects in the world. Raven’s Dream is a sampler of that very dream.
As I passed through life, I was consistently drawn to amazing, horrific, anamorphic, compelling and often mysterious objects. I found these objects on the beach; along the street en route to the grocery store as well as all the other paths I may by walking in my daily life near my home, while I lived in Baja California. This sort of reversed Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumb idea allowed me to retrace my steps back to all of the paths of my daily life be seeing the object which triggered those memories. When I got the objects home, I would carefully wrap them with finely knotted and delicately woven copper wire like one might a gem for jewelry. I would then suspend them from the ceiling.
Eventually, over years my ceiling was laden with the suspended the detritus of nature and humanity, which created a canopy, under which life, progressed as normal. The canopy of objects became incorporated into the environment as a fixture much as our psyches deal with the subconscious. Raven’s Dream can be viewed as an interpretation of C.G. Jung’s collective unconsciousness or Emerson’s theory of the oversoul… just out of reach but creating a rich texture of personality that can be seen clearly if focused upon.
