MFA Thesis – Cognition, Constructs, and Contemplation

After now 2 graduate degrees, I have finally reached the end of the scholarly student road… Featured here is a work title “Construct of Cognition”; Sitting more than 4ft tall this piece among other works was featured in the museum known as the “Gregory Allicar Museum of Art” Here is the Statement associated with this body of work.

I constantly ponder the buzz that surrounds a person at any given moment throughout a day. Stopped at a light, I gaze at other people in their cars and think of the experiences that have brought this group to the same point. These brief moments of simultaneity that intersect individual experiences, environments, and objects are a wonderful feature of being alive; the cognitive ability to contemplate these moments is uniquely human.

The works presented here attempt to reconcile ideas of “cognition” in visual form. These fabricated metal forms promote naturalistic “constructs”. Conceptually, the sculptures represent isolated units of complex neurological systems that govern the transmission of thoughts, memories, and emotions. The works evoke unseen forces in the space inside and in-between living entities and the objects, and landscapes that surround them.

Artist Richard Serra created a list of verbs that inspired him to manipulate material, I also created a list of action-based words I hope filters into my sculpture.

To transmit, to interact, to pass through

To connect, to disconnect

To pollinate, to seed, to grow, to cultivate

To cast, to forge, to weld, to fabricate

To think, to contemplate, to discover…

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