a show that happens on the side, near
Real and artificial flowers ... symbolizing life ... positivity ... hope ... Suggesting a funeral or memorial service ... Remembrance of a loved one ... The real and the artificial standing next to each other ... Both doing the job ...
Found objects ... Arrangements that can lay as parts on the floor ... hung on a wall ... set on a pedestal ... The object does not decide where it goes ... The object decides what it means when it gets there ...
Quiet snow falling ... Wind creating movement ... Rain drenching grass ... decay ... and soil ... Seasonal changes captured as still and motion pictures ... Sound ... reflections ... and change of light ...
Videos ... Snip-its of impulsive performances ... Signals ... hints and actions ... Conveying night dreams ... Quiet and silent glimpses ...
Costumes ... uniforms ... and settings ... Sacred-like ambiguity ... Not completely understanding something ... Momentary personas ... Placing an invented character into a certain setting is a form of ambiguity ... frozen and in motion ...
Living in the present moment ... Hair becomes straw and thoughts become recitals ... The child likes to ham it up ... Never lose the child ...
Holy concrete appears in the photographs and installations ... Weighty objects ... Busting bricks into fragments with a sledgehammer ... Getting feelings out regarding insane violence and senseless bloodshed ... Doing something harmless while not fully understanding why things happen in the world as they do ... Sprays of bullets ... bombs dropped on innocent people ... A sledgehammer in a garage is not violence ... It is the opposite of violence ...
We saw it ... The work involves getting visions off of flat paper and turning them into three-dimensional expressions ... During certain phases this involves a lot of cutting with many different types of hand and power saws ... The vision starts flat ... The hands refuse to let it stay that way ...
Light ... The vision is the goal ... No one formula of lighting for every subject ... There is a very wide range of subtle gradation in the original to start with ... This always gives us something to work with ... The magic or truth in every situation ... The need for absolute accuracy weighed against the need for a specific mood ...
Masks are a part of this world ... Vapor masks ... costume masks ... and constant redefinitions of what a mask can be ... Modern and primitive ... Dramatic facial expressions ... Celebrations of the human spirit ... Primal ... mystic ... immortal in a way ...
Nails and other fasteners for constructing ... Heads not pounded all the way down and points of the nails striking through a surface ... exposed ... Voodoo ... Screws and washers securely hold structural components together ... The nail that goes all the way through is the one that means it ...
Videos of constructing ... deconstructing ... and coating things ... Dull and real ... letting the camera roll ... Maybe to remember how it was done ... when we are old and have an endless amount of time on our hands ...
Birds ... squirrels ... a rabbit ... roaming cat ... spiders ... and bees ... It is a show that happens on the side ... near ... It is its own art ...
Wood ashes are clean ... A couple times a year ... I rub ashes into my skin as a ritual ... Ashes are a connection to various sacred places since I was a boy ...
Horses running down a path through the woods ... Ghostly horses ... Dismembered horse heads in nightmares ... Artistic interpretations of war horses ... Rodeo and race horses ... Big and strong horses used for field work ... An on-going project to invent new ways to portray the horse ... The horse does not need new portrayals ... We need new ways of seeing what the horse already is ...
The parade feels like an abbreviated and expressionistic version of the local culture where the parade happens ... Euphoric ... full of pride ... innocent sense of community ... and fleeting joy ... A town showing itself to itself for an hour ...
We build structures ... smash them apart to get more interesting details ...
The flow or working process ... in the best case scenario ... feels natural ...
Thoughts about this or that surface while working ...
Dreams during the night are usually in dark to light grays or very subdued colors ... Memories of dreams are periodically interpreted as part of the art ... Distortions ... blending ... dismembered wholes ... and layers ...
Indoor studio spaces are usually filled with all types of music ... The music and outdoor sounds invigorate energy and hours spent working ... The saw and the song do not compete ... They take turns ...
Diversity refreshes and strengthens the soul ...
The fluidity of the physical process of hand-writing influences the quality of truth of the writing ... The hand that moves fast tells a different truth than the hand that moves slow ... Both are telling the truth ...
Subtle incidental occurrences ... Photographically captured over the past several years ... what we call Incidental Scenes ... Minor still changes that occur in the work spaces ... A screw that rolled two inches to the left since yesterday ... A shadow that shifted ... The workspace changing itself while no one is watching ...
Source material: pre-2009
Composed: February 4, 2026
Witness
Methodology: Wonderful Garbage
Style: Noir Chanson
Oyparaploo
