statement

As far back as I can remember, the experience of walking around on my father's construction sites and looking at the raw materials deeply affected my concepts of building and destroying. My work began with themes like time, rhythm, and physical labor and has since grown to encompass subject matter like violence, war, desire and death. For me, what connects these themes is the idea of ritual. I am fascinated by the making of art as ritual, and the reoccurring subject matter of art history that documents the human experience. Part of my studio ritual is that of drawing.  Drawing has become a way of thinking, experimenting and exploring possibilities.

My newest series of large scale drawings, "The Architecture of Destruction," involves the process of dividing up the picture plane by snapping down charcoal and other raw materials with chalk lines, like the ones used on construction sites. As lines amass, the surface undergoes various treatments of measured destruction. Pools of water and medium evaporate to reveal the sediment that has covered previous layers.  The result becomes a map like landscape of history and reaction.  Chaos and chance become byproducts of a process of leaving ones mark, building an image and dividing a space. Lines of politics, race, geography and fear constantly divide the space we occupy. Applying corrosives and salt to the paper's surface is much like the process and ritual of war, in that through destruction something new (be it positive or negative) evolves.

bio

born: 1977, Louisville, Kentucky

education:

University of Cincinnati, MFA, 2003
University of Louisville, BFA, 2001

selected awards/honors

Full Tuition Scholarship and Assistantship to College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, University of Cincinnati
Allen R. Hite Scholarship, University of Louisville
Vice President for Undergraduate Research Grant, University of Louisville
Award for Design, Honorable Mention, Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association

selected publications

The Courier-Journal; Our Chemistry, by Diane Heilman. Louisville, KY 2008
Leo Weekly; Sex, War and the Landscape: Our Chemistry, by Jo Anne Triplett. Louisville, KY 2008
Louisville Magazine; Best of Show, by Julie Ball Hambrick. Louisville, KY 2002

selected solo or two-person exhibits

The Architecture of Destruction Solo Exhibition, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, 2010
Our Chemistry: Sex, War and the Landscape Solo Exhibition, Water Tower Gallery, Louisville, KY 2007
Brent Dedas: Drawings on Copper Solo Exhibition, Erin Devine Gallery, Louisville, KY 2002

selected group shows

Personally Political International Juried Exhibition, Juror: Barbara Fragogna, Curator, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, Germany, 2009
Interpretations of the Landscape National Juried Exhib., CIAO Gallery, Jackson, WY, 2009
Art in Academia Juried Exhibition, Juror: Dr. Paul Richelson, Chief Curator at the Mobile Museum of Art, Space 301 Gallery, Mobile, AL, 2009
A Sense of Place National Juried Exhibition, Juror: Amanda Cooper, Curator of Exhibitions, The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL. Gertrude Herbert Inst. of Art, Augusta, GA, 2008