Home is? Somerville, MA
What are you most passionate about? Art and it's ability to serve as vehicle for connection
Who has influenced you? This project exists only as a result of every artist that has ever contributed to Art history of course but I do have some favorites, such as Duchamp, Rauschenberg, Cornell, Ray Johnson, etc.
What do you feel in your gut drives you the most? I've always been driven by the desire to connect with people and to facilitate that connection amongst others. I love to think and I want to inspire others to do this as well. I want to inspire others to trust their own ideas and have fun with them. I want to show everyone that their individual perspective is important and should be shared. Mostly I have an incredible love for people (individuals usually :)
Why art? My mother took a photograph of me as I was being born and this set the stage for what would become her greatest work of art. I had no choice in becoming an artist and now I am saying that I am not art…
When creating, what is the message you are trying to convey? I want people to think and enjoy the process as an end in itself.
Do you ever face any difficulties when trying to create? I face difficulty in most other areas of my life. Creation is not difficult for me sometimes recognition and communication can be though
What are your goals as an artist? I have big dreams and low expectations. I know I will never stop creating and I am very confident in my ideas so I will keep doing what I do and hopefully people will notice and help me to communicate the ideas which I am certain are important.
What do you define as beautiful? Everything is beautiful, but I am most often drawn to discarded, decayed, rusted, things which most people probably would not think of as beautiful. I think I enjoy the idea of time being the artist, reclaiming man made objects and bringing them back to a more natural state.
It was this initial intent, I didn’t really give it the term, you can that is what is it, I wanted people to ask a question, it immediately, and lead you down all the right directions, this one phrase, after a while of doing, I wasn’t getting so much feed back, and got more daring, and more committed, about what I was willing to do. With Instagram the responses, were so amazing, and some were negative, some were positive, they didn’t know what I was going for, and that was exactly is. Everyone has a different response. You are forcing people to see these items as art by considering them art at all.
I just want people to ask the question. I find things that are normally not beautiful– I have this esthetic, with found objects. I really want people to say, well why isn’t it art. I want them to notice to context, where the “not art” is. I don’t see art ever ending at a frame. All it really takes is for you to notice something. I wanted to make something that is for your average person, to get an idea of what is so conventional. I want to empower people, and for people to have fun with this perspective that these are not complicated.
What happened to inspire you? What was the idea you had behind this? And what started this entire thing? I was working in a restaurant and making things in my free time. I brought in one of my pieces and left it by the waiter’s station. It was a burnt up box with no explanation. A lady found it and of course, didn’t know it was ‘art.’ No one at this job knew I was an artist. But she loved it, it gave her an idea of wonder and it compelled me to recreate that same feeling in others. All through high school I was drawing a lot, trying to create art, but this made me realize what I need to do is not make art. I had to make Not Art. So I started writing it down everywhere in my apartment. My roommates didn’t like it and I loved this reaction. So I wanted to make it on the street, I wanted it to be common average lettering that anyone could buy. Now it’s been seven years and not once do I regret doing it.