Recent Work
Painted Desert, 2026 / Mixed Media / 4.5 × 5 ft.
Since first visiting the Southwest in 2004, I have thought of the desert as a metaphor for the mind. The layers of colored earth formed across different geological eras yet visible at once, remind me of the psychic strata within, how our experiences accumulate over time, and how right now, we hold everything that's ever happened to us. This collage brings together my impressions of the desert with words that signify important memories to me. I exhibited the piece in June as part of MACRE Ithaca's 1-year anniversary celebration. I posted wall-text beside it, inviting attendees to write words that matter to them on strips of paper and glue them to the landscape. OPEN DOORS NYC turns 10 and says goodbye to an OG Reality Poet
In April I sat down with my good friends Vince and Var for a recording of their podcast Reality Poets TV. We talked about the start of OPEN DOORS NYC, our work together over the last ten years, including our proudest moments, where we see OPEN DOORS headed, and the friends we've lost along the way. A few weeks later, Var died tragically. He was such a force. I miss him, his humor, his poetry, his smile, how he made me feel special, and how he spoke his mind.A Rain Of Ruin, 2025 / Mixed Media / 7.5 x 14 ft.
I created this sculptural wall painting and sound installation at MACRE Ithaca in August 2025 upon the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From two speakers, a dialogue unfolds between myself and a digital model of my father’s voice built from archival footage. As if speaking from the grave, "he" reads from his contribution to a World War Two anthology. In the passage, my father recalls his experience on Sugar Loaf Hill—one of the Pacific’s most brutal battles. Interspersed are my reflections on my father's hero myth and combat trauma, the horror of the atomic bomb, the patriotic stories I learned in school, and the more complex, morally ambiguous histories I later uncovered.
(This is an edited excerpt of the audio that I created with Norm Scott and Gerry L. Brewster. The full run-time is 12 minutes. Still imagery and videography by Robert Barker and Ry Ferro. Editing by Elizabeth Seldin and Alexis Neophytides.)