Artist Statement for The Disasters & The Four
January 29, 2011
The story of humanity is replete with hardship and suffering. Our species’ struggle is what has brought us to this point in time. All our greatest cultural and technological innovations; our music, art, engineering, science, political systems, philosophy, literature - our very way of life, are all products of surviving a harsh and deadly environment. Our defiance of oblivion made us smarter, stronger, and wiser. We are not however immortal, invincible or unassailable. There is a great deal about us that still must evolve. Our treatment of one another and of the environment is in desperate need of refinement as we are quickly making the world uninhabitable for us. These prints come from 2 separate series; The Disasters and The Four.
The Disaster series reminds us that Nature herself is unforgiving and powerful enough to wipe us out in an instant. The four elements of wind, water, earth and fire are progressively dangerous and inescapable. In an instant 250,000 human lives ended with a tsunami, which on the geologic scale was insignificant. Wildfires, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes and mudslides are daily events that have no sympathy for the destruction they cause. We must respect nature or we will continuously suffer the consequences.
The Four series is meant to invoke the elements of human interaction that are inflicted upon one another. These aspects are best described as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. They are of course: war, famine, pestilence and death. In today’s world there is no longer a need for war, it cannot be justified by any means. Famine, which is one of the main roots of war, is caused by greed. With all our resources, knowledge and ability there should be no one on this planet without sustenance. Not only of the body, but of the mind and spirit as well, as there is just as great a famine of knowledge as there is of nutrients.
These etchings, linocuts and woodblocks are meant to remind the viewer that these disasters, both natural and manmade still run rampant throughout the entire world and affect us all. We should not take for granted what we have and what we are capable of.
