charles snowden

My current work explores our nature as humans and how it is nurtured by our choices as well as the outside world. Thousands of years of ancestral conditioning greatly influences our behavior. When we try to make a conscious decision to behave a certain way we are contending with our "ancient genes." It is a losing battle most of the time. The rats in my figurative work act as a metaphor for our animalistic proclivity and how we interact with that integral part of ourselves. The awareness of this internal animal gives us the ability to mediate between the moral self and the "id." The choice to sculpt children lies in the fact that we are born with genes that dictate our disposition; however, much of our inclination also stems from external stimuli during a time in our lives when we are extremely impressionable. The small narratives my sculptures imply create a tense interaction between our predisposed self and our conscious self. These figurative sculptures provide a platform for discussion of how much our genetic inheritance and our environment determines our behavior and how much of it is an individual lucid choice.