Installation is a critical component of Recollecting Time as it consists of many interconnected elements. Can you explain a little bit about the multiple parts of this piece and how they work together as a whole? How would you say your installation process for Recollecting Time is different than with other works, such as your Extreme Fibers series? 

Some of the work is rather traditional sculpture. The piece that was exhibited in the Extreme Fibers Exhibition doesn’t change much when installed in different places. Recollecting Timehowever looks very different in each place installed depending on the conditions of the space it has been placed. I like using electrical conduit because it starts to challenge our understanding of where the artwork stops and where the site it is installed in begins. I’m interested in the subversive qualities art can have- are these quiltforms becoming parasitic? Does artwork leech off of the site where it has been placed? The quilts are very much about remembering a specific place and time so I’m interested in artwork that layers or complicates these ideas.

Where do you get the materials, such as wires, fabric, and metal, that are in your work? Do you ever use upcycled materials?

I often use found materials in my work. This series however is mostly new materials. The sound component to this piece is a collection of field recordings I made while I was in Costa Rica, sounds of the vibrant city and sounds of the rainforest.

In the past you have mentioned that works from your Nothing from Something series were influenced by John Cage. Was there a specific John Cage work that inspired you? Can you tell us a little more?

John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Steve Reich, Nam June Paik, the list goes on.

As far as Cage is considered- any of his prepared piano works, 4:33 of course, Cartridge Music. Lucier- I’m Sitting in a Room, Music on a long thin wire, Reich- Come out, Pendulum Music, Nam June Paik- Random Access, One for Violin Solo. I think of these pieces as transcending the world of music and entering the world of performance and visual art. They challenged musical conventions and introduced a combination of science and emotion that seemingly today we still split apart.

Do you have any advice for undergraduate art majors who might not know exactly what art field or career they want to pursue?

Usually not what folks want to hear… STOP WORRYING ABOUT IT. The goal is to learn how to open up your mind to a world of possibilities. No one can be just one thing and the sooner you develop a way to see the world in a pluralistic sense, the sooner you will find yourself doing amazing things. Being an artist isn’t a career- it’s a way of life, it’s a philosophy that will inform everything you do. My hope is that students studying art will see that jobs aren’t waiting to be filled by you- jobs and life-paths are waiting to be invented by you.

Oh and these three things: Be present, be ambitious, and be confident.