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With a show coming up in Texas - approximatly 1500 miles away - I had a moment of “dear God, something has to work, and I’ve been wanting to explore this idea”. Diesel is $6.50 a gallon or more, meaning just driving to the show would be $1000. In the strange way my neurons “work”, I thought it might make sense to jump into this new idea...
It’s more direct, less abstract than the “Meditation Machination” series. It plays with color. There was a degree of “I gotta survive” -- which meant less thinking, and get on with it.
...and somehow, I really think they’re great. So many new things to explore withing this group.
(...and then I decided to cancel going to the show in TX, it was just too much.)
Approximately 4,000 years ago (okay, maybe it was 1996 or so, same thing) I had a *brief* span of going to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. For simplicity, we’ll say my focus was metalsmithing and jewelry. A rather great assignment was a survival experiment: create in one day (eight hours or less, hah!) a jewelry piece that could be sold. What I made for that assignment was actually one of my favorite pieces of that period...
...which is the first piece you see on the right. It was a brooch, fine silver, and copper. It also looks immensely like my current work.
---
So, the name of the new series? (While the new pieces mingle well with the rest of the wall pieces, this group has a different narrative) That image of the man carrying a giant tube? That’s Claes Oldenburg carrying his sculpture “Giant Toothpaste Tube”, in 1969. I’ve had an image of this in my studio (every bloody one of my studios, there have been many) for 20+ years. The sign behind him... take a look. I had the domain name “boxjunctionexperiment.com” for years. (dammit. It was available and I just bought it again). After all this time, something clicked, and we’re here.
So, this Box Junction Experiment series -- it’s about connections, and a bit of the strange.
The first group, the stars -- they’re here.
2026-08-12 16:31
There's something about repetition of form, multiplicity, that compels me. A younger version of me might make fun of this persona. "They're just making the same thing over and over, and putting it together..." Well, snarky Matthew, it's not that simple, although you're not totally wrong.
The repetition creates a degree of quietness, tranquility...
...but then the variations in the repetition also break that same aspect of the work. The creation becomes active, changing; evolutions and iterations move one's eyes across the piece. What was static becomes something else entirely -- and then static again.
There's a lot of noise in the world. Having a quiet place to step off from lets one experience change and movement in a more intimate way.
Shown at left:
Moments - 2
patinated steel
35” x 2.5” x 7”
05 Aug 5:07pm
As I rebuild the website, I'm going through, and editing, images of past pieces. So, so, many images, and marginal organization. There's a lot of great work that very few people have seen - and I feel the history and path of the work is important. Looking at where I've been helps this new(?) path -- figuring out where I'm going. I'd like to give you some handholds on that path, too.
Much of the new work may not bet understandable in the same way; or it may appear very simple in comparison. The newer work is building a vocabulary to go much further. Saying another way - to move from jewelry to (very) small sculpture, and then to move to work that may be fairly limitless in scale --- it's been a learning of new methods, new materials to a point that is rather wild. Feelin' like a different human.
...and it's a learning of what aspects of the work art still important to me, what carries forward in both aesthetics and narratives. Functional, dysfunctional, sculptural, questions that bring more questions -- these are carrying forward . It's about to get interesting.
but god, so many photos. Learning better ways to handle even that.
Good luck out there.
As I rebuild the website, I'm going through, and editing, images of past pieces. So, so, many images, and marginal organization. There's a lot of great work that very few people have seen - and I feel the history and path of the work is important. Looking at where I've been helps this new(?) path -- figuring out where I'm going. I'd like to give you some handholds on that path, too.
Much of the new work may not bet understandable in the same way; or it may appear very simple in comparison. The newer work is building a vocabulary to go much further. Saying another way - to move from jewelry to (very) small sculpture, and then to move to work that may be fairly limitless in scale --- it's been a learning of new methods, new materials to a point that is rather wild. Feelin' like a different human.
...and it's a learning of what aspects of the work art still important to me, what carries forward in both aesthetics and narratives. Functional, dysfunctional, sculptural, questions that bring more questions -- these are carrying forward . It's about to get interesting.
but god, so many photos. Learning better ways to handle even that.
Good luck out there.
(2022, sold)
05 Aug 2026 3pm
Working on lots of website updates.
A note: if you are interested in purchasing something from me, please do so here, or contact me directly. NOT through Arftful Home, at least for now.
Over the last few years, Artful Home has been selling my work. Sometimes they've reached clients I didn't have, sometimes my clients have bought from them. It was a solid part of my sales at times, and a venue that meant I wasn't doing as much driving and hustling -- it would let me work in the studio (albeit, a limited subset of my work). Unfortunately, they also take 50% of the sales money. That trade off was worth it at times.
...but, now they've stopped paying artists, or are paying extremely late. There's money owed to me that was earmarked for my bills, and paying expenses.
So... working on updating my website. With past work, with new works, with these thoughts and ideas of where it's all going.
Working on lots of website updates.
A note: if you are interested in purchasing something from me, please do so here, or contact me directly. NOT through Arftful Home, at least for now.
Over the last few years, Artful Home has been selling my work. Sometimes they've reached clients I didn't have, sometimes my clients have bought from them. It was a solid part of my sales at times, and a venue that meant I wasn't doing as much driving and hustling -- it would let me work in the studio (albeit, a limited subset of my work). Unfortunately, they also take 50% of the sales money. That trade off was worth it at times.
...but, now they've stopped paying artists, or are paying extremely late. There's money owed to me that was earmarked for my bills, and paying expenses.
So... working on updating my website. With past work, with new works, with these thoughts and ideas of where it's all going.
Might get messy, and might mostly be for me. Who knows?