VARYISM

In my lifetime I have made one great observation. Though I now call that observation Varyism, it arrived in my workshop late one day and without a name. I had spent the afternoon working on two very different sculptures and they happened  to be facing each other on my cluttered bench. As I swept up, I glanced back to the bench. The two sculptures seemed to be peering closely at one another and then, almost like an optical illusion, the were one. The two pieces disappeared and merged into one mentally interconnected sculpture. The mystery of that moment has guided me ever since. I've sought to understand it, recreate it, research it, describe it, and ultimately name it.

If I had seen a glimpse of a new art form, I wondered how I could be the first? I looked for other artists who were also making artworks from combined elements (not combined as in an installation, but with individually complete artworks that combine only through arrangement). I found that Robert Longo's Corporate Wars: Walls of Influence; Mike Kelley's Wallflowers; and Gordon Matta-Clark's Office Baroque; were examples of what I was now beginning to call Varyism.

As I fixated on these arrangements I saw that Varyism is created in different compositional ways. These artists' arrangements were distinctly different from the vision I had seen in my workshop and also different from each other. No artist had made a comprehensive use of arrangement strategies. It was as though each artist had found a piece of the puzzle but left the entirety unassembled.

Varyism turned out to be a puzzle; some pieces were there, some were missing. It was obvious from the pieces I found that, theoretically, there could be many completely new kinds of arrangements capable of producing the Varyism effect. It was less  obvious knowing what they were. During the last four years of modeling and building artworks, I believe I have discovered three completely new arrangements for Varyism. The potential for many more arrangement types exists and I continue to push in this direction.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

solo:

Arroyo Arts Collective Re-Discovery Tour: 16th Annual Showcase of Artists' Homes and Studios. November 2008.

Bark Very Hard. Lindhurst Gallery, University of Southern California, May 1983.

group:

Buy The Running Foot. Orange County Center for Contemporary Art. December 2008. 

Arroyo Arts Collective Group Show. Future Gallery. November - December 2008.

Going Public. Student Art Exhibit at the USC Atelier Gallery in the Santa Monica Place Mall, January 1983.

Annual Juried Student Art Show. Harris Hall Gallery, University of Southern California, 1982.

SELECTED BOOKS AS AUTHOR/ARTIST

The Cliff: A Build it Yourself Varyism. A letterpress book of nine prints in nine mediums. It forms a sculpture and/or a book. Printed in an edition of 27.

Miles Boyer Dechant: An American Impressionist 1890-1942. A full color, 120 page book about the art of my grandfather. Printed in an edition of 2000.

A Spider Box. A short story and book of woodcuts primarily printed at Self-help Graphics. Printed in an edition of 5.

EDUCATION

Master of Fine Arts, University of Southern California, School of Cinema/Television, 1987.

Bachelor of Arts, University of Southern California, School of Fine Arts and School of Cinema/Television Dual major, 1985.