About My Father's Stuff

     My Father’s Stuff is a body of work that came out of an innovative push in a new direction when resources weren't available to pursue a particular large-scale glass project.  What I didn't realize at the time is this body of work would help me sort and process the deeper spiritual and personal truths of my father's passing from lung cancer several years prior. Made completely on location at his home, barn and cottage across four summers, each piece was created using rusted objects he left behind. These tangible bits and pieces of his life were gathered and used to transfer marks to fabric. Collectively, these marks come together in raw form to tell a story.

     Unfinished addressed the hard realities of my father’s diagnosis and passing, and my own personal passage as I lived through that timeline of events. Redemption found me on the other side of that grief, with a complex foundation of redemptive peace and a new sense of self emerging, a truer self - and the honest recognition that these pieces, and this new self, would not be if not for my father’s passing. And finally, Renewal brought forth an authentic joy I had not seen in my work previously. With that joy came more exploration and experimentation, and a confident freedom to now push my own artistic boundaries and challenge the very processes and results I had worked so hard to develop.

Photo: Doug Foulke