Constructs of American Violence consists of nine small paintings, which are details of a Civil War monument and a Civil War era cannon that reside outside the city courthouse in Traverse City, Michigan. A common sight in many towns large and small in the United States, these paintings are an investigation of the scarred and weathered surfaces (physical and cerebral) of these very American constructs to violence.
An Average Day utilizes a common toy (a collection of army men) to visually track the accumulation of the daily death toll to gun violence in the United States. Each day, I place one hundred more Army men in concentric circles around the preceding accumulation of days for the duration of the exhibition.
Both pieces are in attempt to subvert the normal ways we ingest our violent past, and currently violent cultural moments.
Constructs of American Violence
An Average Day
