Our Work
I completed several bronze sculptures and a small ceramic tile maquette during my residency at Anderson Ranch Arts Center thanks to Oolite Arts, February 2 - March 9, 2022.
The Mambises ceramic tile mural maquette is composed of hand-stamped, 2 x 2 inch glazed ceramic tiles, UV-printed with an image of the Mambises. The Mambises were mostly Afro-Cubans who fought in the Cuban wars of independence. After the Americans got involved, the war became the Spanish-American War whereby the Americans gained control of Cuba, the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. When the former Mambises and other Afro-Cubans created the "Partido Independiente de Color," the Independent Party of Color, and tried to get seats in the Havana government, they were massacred by the American-backed Cuban government and militias in 1912.
Magnolia and Morion, bronze. 2022
The absurdly large Magnolia flower representing the South overpowers the Morion helmet. The Magnolia is one of the oldest flowering plants (angiosperms) in existence; it is a New World plant, not occurring in Europe. I cannot help but wonder about the atrocities it may have witnessed, the "strange fruit" it saw hanging in the nearby poplar trees. Not only did Spaniard conquistadores wear the Morion, but so did slavers from Portugal and England. Cultural slippage at work.
Residue, bronze. 2022
The absurd morion helmet appears like an artifact, retrieved from the sea-bottom. The deformed baby hands and feet at its base may represent the residue of the indigenous peoples it helped conquer or may represent the remnants of an unusual, hermit crab-like creature that inhabited the helmet at the sea-bottom.
