The Street Suites Series developed over time.
The original seed of inspiration was planted in me when I was in Los Angeles and got hooked by what appeared on the cities walls. Artful and grafitied messages, wild and spontaneous acts of communication by unknown contributors or by positioned makers created visually vibrant works of art everywhere there was an available wall. Urban walls, covered in every kind of material that could stick, transforming constantly into what is revealed through time alone. I took a series of photographs at that time called L.A.Wall Collages.
Years passed before I discovered a more random and equally satisfying series of walls. These are more temporary and random feeling than the L.A. walls. The Ohio Avenue structures are covered in layers of peeling and blistering messages, signs, tags. Its harsh in its beauty. Its color palet is soothing, soft grays and blues. Jagged boards hammered over holes in the walls pop out from the surface like a slice of bright color.
In the winter when the trees lining Ohio Avenue have lost all of their leaves shadows appear against the length of the wall. Beautiful and random the limbs of the trees decorate the worn surfaces of the Ohio Avenue facade. The elements of wind and water and the passing impermanence of time are recurring themes in my work.
The pieces in the Street Suites Series are a reflection on these ideas and visual curiosities. I paste down images, found words, leaflets, photographs and other ephemera, often found on the streets. I sand away the layers of meaning, I sand away and disappear forever what had meaning for me the day before. I fold in layers of community, place and time then allow for the alchemy of spontaneity to create anew. I enter in the realm of the random and the meaningful. I am the creator and the destroyer in my own way.