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Thornhill Foundation for the Arts artLAB Benefit Series
For this series I used the remaining unsold smaller scale sculptures from my
2016 Series and expounded the craft, design and process of my work.
I incorporated more advanced wire techniques, a wider variety of materials, and, most notably, began incorporating paint to my work.
These pieces were then promoted and displayed at TFA's live painting competition and art festival artLAB as being part of a raffle with tickets costing $1 each. Tickets were purchased at the event and buyers had to wait until the end of the event to hear if they had won. I pulled tickets at random from large envelopes and read the winners associated with the ticket number into the microphone. Winners had to take their sculptures home with them that day.
Official documentation photos taken of sculptural forms presented during the first annual artLAB
Photos and photographic concept by Jorge Cainas
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A Growing Wonder
2014-2017
(Sold)
12 ga copper wire, 8 ga copper wire, 6 ga copper wire, acrylic paint, amethyst heat-treated, Apache Tears obsidian, concrete, copper tubing, coral collected by the artist in St. Petersburg, FL, geodes from Mexico, geodes from Morocco, glass, golden rutilated quartz with hematite inclusions from Brazil, Herkimer Diamond on matrix from Herkimer, NY, smoky quartz from Brazil, smoky quartz polished by the artist from Brazil, double-terminated enhydro quartz from Tibet, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, ocean jasper from Madagascar, opal from Australia, pyrite from Brazil, pebble from Mexico, quartz from Brazil, black sand, selenite from Morocco, shark tooth from Morocco, snail shell collected by the artist in St. Petersburg, FL, shells with barnacle growth collected by the artist in St. Petersburg, FL after hurricane Matthew, white aragonite
Artist Statement:
This art piece references the notion that as the natural beauty of the world diminishes, the wonder and awe derived from seeing it increases.
A majority of these natural materials are semi-precious and of course inherently rare substances. However, I used quite a few materials that are becoming increasingly more rare.
Ocean jasper is a type of mineral found only in northwestern Madagascar. The two specimens I use in this piece are from the vein near the village of Marovato, which has been completely mined out. Meaning there is no longer any more of the mineral in the place of its origin.
Lapis lazuli, which comes from Afghanistan, is beginning to be seen as a “conflict mineral” due to the illegal mining and sale of the mineral by militants, including the Taliban.
Copper, a common material in my work, is predicted to run out before the year 2050.
The coral, shark tooth and shells reference the natural beauty of living organisms within nature. Many of the world's coral is dying and shark populations have been steadily decreasing.
The Malleability of Choice Through Time
2013-2017
(Sold)
20 ga copper wire, 12 ga copper wire, 8 ga copper wire, 6 ga copper wire, acrylic paint, concrete, copper rod, copper wire heat-treated by the artist, copper wire water- treated by the artist, perennial flowers dried by the artist, selenite desert rose from the Sahara desert, selenite desert rose from Arizona, selenite desert rose from Oklahoma, shells found by the artist on St. Petersburg Beach, FL, snail shells collected by the artist in Greece, NY and Tampa, FL, sand collected by the artist in Imperial Dunes, CA
Artist Statement:
I specifically chose the usage of snail shells, desert rose specimens, sand collected from a desert and perennial flowers because of the symbolism associated with snails, sand, and perennial flowers.
Snails and sand are commonly used as symbols of time’s passing.
Perennial flowers can be a symbol of the cyclical nature of life.
The Subtleties of An Action:
Picking Up Pebbles
In A Parking Lot
2015-2017
(Sold)
acrylic paint, concrete, leopard skin jasper from Brazil, obsidian from Mexico, slate collected by the artist in Conklin’s Gully, NY, pebbles collected by the artist in a truck stop parking lot, LA, tiger’s eye from Brazil, unidentified rock found by the artist in Arizona
Artist Statement:
I collected the pebbles in the parking lot of a truck stop in Louisiana that had numerous billboards advertising a Live Tiger. My imagination could not prepare me for how sad the scene was to me. The fumes from the trucks and cars caused my throat and nose to burn and the habitat for the tiger was very minimal. There were also preserved taxidermy tigers in the gift shop and restaurant from past display animals.
There was, at one point, a group of people protesting the tigers being kept in this truck stop and the truck stop won. I had planned to gather materials during this road trip so I grabbed one of my plastic bags and took a few.
This art piece was created to raise awareness of this place and to raise awareness for the well being of all big cat species. I have included two minerals that are removable. One is Blue Tiger’s Eye and the other is Leopard Skin Jasper. It was my intention to pay homage to the idea of being able to lift, or rescue, these beautiful animals from harmful environments.
“Know Thyself”: An Inquiry Into One’s Social Dynamics
2015-2017
(Sold)
patina and crystallized 24 ga copper wire, patina and crystallized 6 ga copper wire, patina and crystallized copper pipe, acrylic paint, crystallized concrete, fluorite from Brazil, pyrite from Brazil, salt
Colors: Green
2016-2017
(Sold)
12 ga aluminum wire, 12 ga copper wire, 8 ga copper wire heat-treated by the artist, acrylic paint, copper nuggets from Michigan, emerald from Brazil, green quartz from Brazil, ink, ruby in fuchsite from Brazil
Colors: Yellow
2016-2017
(Sold)
12 ga aluminum wire, 12 ga copper coated aluminum wire, 8 ga copper wire, acrylic paint, azurite with malachite from the Republic of the Congo, concrete, coral collected by the artist in St. Petersburg, FL, hemimorphite from Wenshan, Yunnan Province, China, ink, pyrite with quartz from Brazil, shark tooth from Morocco
A Saddening Relativity
2015-2017
(Sold)
28 ga copper wire, 8 ga copper wire, acrylic paint, black sand, concrete, oil paint, quartz from Brazil
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