Image Maker vs. Object Maker

We live in a world devoted to the image, both hardcopy and virtual, static and fluid.

Images appear to be replacing objects; consider the Kindle. Likewise, the trend in contemporary galleries seems to lean toward new or integrated media. Many of my peers work in time-based or performative media where the process or event is preserved in image: photo and/or video. As a maker of tangible objects I have begun to wonder: am I clinging to the obsolete? Is the object – if not already dead – choking out its death rattle?

Frankly, I like objects.

I like making objects.

I like the feel of manipulating materials in my hands be it fabric, wire, paper, leather or whatever and I like what’s left over after I’ve manipulated the @#!$ out of the materials.

I like that there is only one degree of separation between myself and the viewer.

I’m not saying I don’t groove on the process. Process is the closest thing to meditation that I may ever be able to achieve. Process is where transformation takes place.

But process involves taking something from the world.

The object is what I give back.