“SHELTER”

Size ranges 11x14 up to 20x40” ; 1” up to 1.5” depth | 100% pure Edelman leather hand-cut collages on birch wood panel | $190/each (small works). $470 (medium works). $700 (large works)

“Invest in real estate” our parents always told us growing up. That reminds me of the pinnnical of baby boomer real estate flex (in the worst taste possible): the mc mansion era. I think the one time in history that baby boomers should have been taxed more during that era ( approx 1990s-2010s) to divert such an eye sore travesty as the mc mansion would become. But I digress…. Houses used to go by another name throughout much of history prior to the modern era: shelter. A roof over your head. Now it has turned into an investment—like so many other facets of our hyper capitalist system. Books could be written on on the convoluted process it took to get to real estate being an investment and subsequently that leading to the current housing bubble we are in, which leaves many people yearning for yesteryear. People are now going analog: listening to cds and cassettes, using flip phones, writing letters, and buying landlines to stroke their nostalgic itch. I am doing the same with the latest collection of art: returning to the roots of real estate before it became a big profit system. The art does not just depict what homes were but how much they cost, too: thus, quite literally, making my price tag reflect that as well. These are my most budget-friendly pieces to date with prices all under $1000.

“Shelter” is also an ode to other things that are directly tied to my own roots or pique my facination right now:

Chignik Lagoon Fishing village: Roughly 400 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, lays a special memory in my childhood. I spent every summer commercial fishing out of here with my 4th generation commercial family.

Scandinavian Roots: I have been to Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark at different times in my life and have a deep sense of pride in my viking culture and all of the historical figures that cam from that land—one being my great great grandfather Oscar. He sailed to America for more opportunities in the late 1890s and ended up settling in Chignik Lagoon.

Purchase of Greenland: There is so much in the news about this mystical land—that may soon become the 51st state?!lol That sounds so weird, but cool. The houses there are much like Scandinavian coastlines, as well, so that‘s what made me include Greenland as an inspiration for this collection.

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