CHAD WYS

Seemingly so simple, incredibly clever...I am a huge fan of Chad Wys many talents.  

 I often explore/exploit the idea of objecthood: how we decorate our lives with arbitrary, as well as meaningful, things; how we objectify the ones we love and the strangers we see; how we objectify pain and death; how we objectify complex and sensitive cultural histories. I'm also deeply interested in understanding the reception of art, the reception of objects, and how extrinsic and intrinsic influences affect individuals' reception of the visuality they experience.

My readymade works frequently deal with the re-contextualization of decorative art objects. By retooling the object and then re-presenting it before the viewer I intend to add new layers to the conversation that takes place between the observer and the object in its original state. By reclaiming these objects I mean to acknowledge how our possessions (can/do) define us. In so many innumerable ways the bric-a-brac of our lives becomes a unit of measure of our own worth—I wish to subvert this measure. I enjoy infiltrating this territory of being and I revel in pointing to the superficial and the wonderfully imperfect character traits in all of us.

In a world of new, now and more- I find his art and his philosophy to be insightful and meaningful!  Thoughts?

Read the his full (and insanely thought provoking) statement here.  

follow here, here, here and here.

shop here and here.

all images and selected text:  Chad Wys

DAVID HICKS

Weeks ago they started digging my family's land.  Beautiful red and blue clay is carried off the property buy the truck load.  My father sends me photos of the holes in the earth in the fields around the house.  He talks about the ponds that will be seemingly lake size.  

It has been the same for so long, it frightens me a little to imagine what it will look like after they are finished.  Change can be hard to accept sometimes.  There will be new beauty there to replace the old, I'm sure of it.  I have been thinking about how romantic it will be to go to Marshall Pottery and buy pots made from soil from Lawless land. 

David Hicks makes beautiful sculpture and lovely collections and arrangements of clay objects.  As much as I love the slick metallic pieces, I am especially fond of the unglazed pieces where you can really see the gorgeous natural color of the clay......it reminds me of that rich red color I would see along the highway driving out to dads.

all images:  David Hicks Studio