Light Sculpture & Arts-Based Research
Metamorphose 2020
Obelisk 2020
Fulgur 2020
Scintillae 2020
Red Unconscious 2020
Chimeric Passage 2022
Silent Currents 2019
Halographic Codex 2022
Harmonious Chemestry 2021
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Black Body Radiation
ember cast in glass, 2020
When you heat something up, it glows. Like stars, the temperature of a fire determines its colors. Black Body Radiation is a nod to Planck’s law of black-body radiation, and serves as an inquiry into the temperature of color and considers the relationship between wildfire (the temperature of the burn) and stars (stellar classification). This scintilla spans from black (3140°F–4940°F) to blue (18,000°F), and its color chemistry is informed by this personal photograph of a charred and warped royal blue recycle bin in Point Dume, Malibu, taken on November 18, 2018, ten days after the Woolsey Fire ignited.
Lunar Ghost
ember cast in glass, 2020
Ghosts reflect our timeless fascination with (and fear of) death. In mythology and folklore, the elemental spirit of Will-o’-the-wisp is an atmospheric light that traverses marshes and cemeteries associated with the souls of the dead. Lunar Ghost questions the significance of the physical body and is a metaphysical inquiry into the mystery of death and what happens after we die. The luminous cosmic matter in Lunar Ghost is reminiscent of something from the past, an existence that once was, a translucent milky moon-like memory of an old vessel.
The color chemistry of Lunar Ghost is informed by a personal photograph of thick, opaque smoke billows captured in Point Dume, Malibu on November 9, 2018 just prior to evacuating my home the morning that the Woolsey Fire ignited.
Magnum Opus
ember cast in glass, 2020
Magnum opus, or “the great work,” is an alchemical term that refers to the process of transmuting base metals into gold. Magnum opus is also a metaphor used in analytical psychology to discern the challenging stages of personal development on the path to consciousness and psychological totality. This process is known as individuation, or the process of becoming whole.
In the ancient art of alchemy, the magnum opus is comprised of four stages represented by a progression of colors: nigredo (“the blackening”), albedo (“the whitening”), citrinitas (“the yellowing”), and rubedo (“the reddening”). Magnum Opus embodies the complete material and psychological cycles of death-rebirth, individuation, and ultimately transformation.
The color chemistry of Magnum Opus is inspired by a personal photograph taken on November 18, 2018 immediately following the Woolsey Fire, and features unaltered signage amidst a scorched backdrop of my neighborhood in Point Dume.
Fire Followers
ember cast in glass, 2020
From burn to bloom: the tie between knowing death, and knowing what it is to be fully alive. “Fire followers” is a term for a group of plants whose existence relies on the heat, smoke, and scorched soil of wildfire. They lie dormant for years below ground until the heat of a blaze acts as a catalyst to crack open the hard coating of their seeds, and they sprout. Fire Followers encapsulates our interconnectedness with the natural world while referencing the death-rebirth cycle of all things, and simultaneously functions as a critique of death and dying culture in America. This particular scintilla and its color chemistry was inspired by the color eruption carpeting the Santa Monica Mountains and the vibrant birthing of fire followers I witnessed in my own backyard and documented in February/March of 2019, just months after the Woolsey Fire ignited. Electric lime greens, neon canary yellows, marshmallow whites…all rising from charred black earth.
Sol Niger
ember cast in glass, 2020
Darkness within darkness: the gateway to all understanding. – Lao Tzu
Sol niger is the alchemical “black sun” and the first operation in alchemy known as the nigredo, or “the blackening.” It refers to the transformative potential of illumination that the black sun offers in the initiatory descent into darkness when facing our shadows, our suffering, and that which lies hidden within the realm of the unconscious. The wisdom that the sol niger matrix provides is in knowing that if we can honor and face the darkness of the unknown, the unconscious, the fears, the depression, the pain and the challenges, instead of denying, rejecting, or avoiding them, we gain access to another kind of enlightenment and illumination that is transformative in nature. Sol Niger refers to the light of darkness itself.
The color chemistry of the Sol Niger ember is inspired by a personal photograph taken at 8:30am on the Pacific Coast Highway adjacent to Leo Carrillo State Beach on November 9, 2018 during my evacuation from Point Dume the morning of the Woolsey Fire.