Thingness | Art League Houston | Houston, TX | 2017

Thingness was me thinking about painting as objects. Not image, not symbols or metaphors, just the things as they are. I wanted to lean into the physical presence of the work: painted plywood, glue, staples, tape, stickers, screws, markers, sawdust. Stuff you’d find in a garage or a junk drawer. Materials with a kind of baked-in utility that I deliberately pulled away from. These pieces almost look useful, but they’re not. They’re deliberately awkward, stuck somewhere between painting, sculpture, furniture, and joke.

I was thinking about the point where a tool becomes a thing. When it breaks, or stops doing its job, or just feels out of step with the moment. That kind of uselessness interested me. Not in a nihilistic way, but in a playful, slightly rebellious way. Like saying: what if art didn’t have to fix anything? What if it just existed—sturdy, dumb, and charming.

There’s humor in the work, but it’s not ironic. The colors are bright, the shapes clunky, the gestures half-serious. I like when things feel cobbled together but still intentional. Like they’re barely holding themselves up, but proud to be doing it anyway. These pieces live in that tension. They’re faking it a little, but they’re also trying.