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This new group of work
uses the shadow box frame as a central element. It allows me to
incorporate materials that do not lend themselves easily to textile
constructions, which almost all of my work in the past has been
based upon. I have used aluminum drink cans and tire bits and
rusted appliance metal in combination with industrial materials such
as hardware cloth and aluminum flashing to make wall hangings and
sculptures. There is a transformation in the materials through the
processes I use. The anonymous and ubiquitous become special and
specific. In these new works I am using objects and materials I
have collected for many years having no real definite use in mind
for them. A couple of collaborative projects over the last few
years with fellow artists have brought me into greater contact with
objects of specific uses. This also includes the photographic
image.
These pieces deal
largely with two ideas. The first is identity. I use a picture of
myself as a child to anchor pieces about the wonder and terror of
childhood. The checkerboard pattern, so common in textiles, becomes
the playing field for exploration and the accumulation of
experience. The second is the intersections of the natural world
with the cultural world in which we live. I use textile
constructions as metaphors to mediate between these two worlds. A
crocheted copper wire fabric floats inside a shadow box to become a
diaphanous cloud of color over graphic instructions for net making.
In all of the pieces I
have used old tools (and other ‘stuff’), some inherited, some
collected at flea markets and eccentric second hand stores. I am
not nostalgic for the past, nor do I want my work to be seen as
sentimental. I do like the patina of age as well as the shiny
surface of new metal. Especially I like them together because they
can remind us of where we have been and where we are. I like them
for what they are and how they have been used: a level for the
carpenter can remind me to keep balance in my life. A beautiful
blue wasp reminds me that time indeed flies. The simplest rag
makes me thankful for the useful things in my life. Hopefully this
new format allows me to communicate the poetry I find in these
things.
In all of the pieces I have used old
tools (and other ‘stuff’), some inherited, some collected at flea
markets and eccentric second hand stores. I am not nostalgic for
the past, nor do I want my work to be seen as sentimental. I do
like the patina of age as well as the shiny surface of new metal.
Especially I like them together because they can remind us of where
we have been and where we are. I like them for what they are and
how they have been used: a level for the carpenter can remind me to
keep balance in my life. A beautiful blue wasp reminds me that time
indeed flies. The simplest rag makes me thankful for the useful
things in my life. Hopefully this new format allows me to
communicate the poetry I find in these things.
Date and Place of
Birth:
1950, El Paso, TX
Education:
1976 Master in Art, University of California, Los Angeles
1972 Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA
Permanent Collections:
Albuquerque Museum,
Albuquerque, NM
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
Erie Museum, Erie, PA
High Museum, Atlanta, GA
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC
Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington,
DC
Selected Exhibitions:
2008 Reflections, Matrix Fine Art,
Albuquerque, NM
2006 The Windows Project, Racine Art Museum,
Racine, WI
2005 Recycle, Reuse, Recreate, Artspace
Gallery, Center for the Arts, Jackson, WY
2004 Inaugral Exhibition, Artspace 116,
Albuquerque, NM
2003 Environmental Installation: Paper Wall,
UW-River Falls, WI
2002 John Garrett Retrospective, Oceanside
Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA
1998 Ninth International Triennial of
Tapestry, Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland
1997 Trashformations: Recycled Materials in
American Art and Design, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA
1996 Viewpoint: Art as Message, Craft Alliance
Gallery, St. Louis, MO
1993 USA-Today, Netherlands Textile Museum,
Tilburg, The Netherlands
1993 Subversive Crafts, MIT List Visual Arts
Center, Cambridge, MA
1990 Explorations: The Aesthetic of Excess,
American Craft Museum, New York, NY
1989 Craft Today USA, Musee des Arts
Decoratifs, Paris, France
1988 Frontiers in Fiber: The Americans, North
Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
1987 The Eloquent Object, Philbrook Museum,
Tulsa, OK
1986 Fiber R/Evolution, Milwaukee Art Museum,
WI
1984 Vehta Biennale, Romaanse Kerk, Brussels,
Belgium
1984 Vehta Biennale, Romaanse Kerk, Brussels,
Belgium
1982 Art and/or Craft: USA and Japan,
Kanazawa, Japan
1981 Made in LA: Contemporary Crafts '81,
Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2008
Reflections, Matrix Fine Art, Albuquerque, NM2008 Reflections,
Matrix Fine Art, Albuquerque, NM
Awards:
The National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1983 and 1995
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