QUINTESSENCE
Quintessence: Starless #1 | 2016 | archival digital c-print, acrylic face mount | 148 x 122 cm
Quintessence: Starless #2 | 2016 | archival digital c-print, acrylic face mount | 148 x 122 cm
Quintessence #7 | 2013 | 24kt gold leaf, cultured crystals grown on gypsum plaster cast from Irish milky quartz | 11.5 x 13 x 15 cm
Quintessence #19 | 2019 | cultured crystals grown on ca. 400-million-year-old coral fossil | 18 x 23 x 18 cm
Quintessence #25 | 2019 | cultured crystals grown on cast concrete (burnt limestone, spent sand, volcanic rock) | 20 x 20 x 18 cm
Quintessence #8 | 2014 | cultured crystals grown on ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician horn coral (streptelasma) | 10 x 14 x 12 cm
Quintessence #23 | 2019 | cultured crystals grown on cast concrete (burnt limestone, spent sand, volcanic rock) with slag | 15 x 15 x 12.5 cm | private collection
Quintessence #21 | 2019 | cultured crystals grown on ca. 400-million-year-old coral fossil | 15 x 16.5 x 8 cm | private collection
Quintessence: Kiln Study #2 | 2021 | fired cast clay from cultured crystals | 31 x 20.5 x 5 cm
Quintessence #12 | 2018 | Cast gypsum cement from cultured crystals | 30.5 x 23 x 2 cm
Quintessence #15 | 2018 | Cast gypsum cement from cultured crystals | 30.5 x 23 x 2 cm
QUINTESSENCE #1 | 2013 | cultured crystals, archival acetate, gold and silver leaf, pigment, gesso, animal glue, tree resin, clay bole, wood panel | 43 x 35.5 x 18.5 cm
QUINTESSENCE #2 | 2013 | cultured crystals, archival acetate, gold and silver leaf, pigment, gesso, animal glue, tree resin, clay bole, wood panel | 43 x 35.5 x 18.5 cm
QUINTESSENCE #5 | 2013 | cultured crystals on plaster cast from Irish milky quartz | 14 x 16.5 x 16.5 cm | Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Collection
Quintessence: Callixylon Newberryi | 2016 | cultured crystals on ca.350-million-year-old late Devonian petrified wood fragment from Callixylon Newberryi (the earliest tree) | 22 x 10 x 10 cm | private collection
QUINTESSENCE
(Quintessence: /kwɪn.ˈtɛs.əns/ the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies.)
supported by (to date): U.S. National Endowment for the Arts (Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery / Aronoff Center for the Arts), Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation, Queen City Clay
Crystals are everywhere—in clouds composed of ice, diamonds within a meteorite formed in the solar system's earliest moments, in calcite micro-crystals in the brain's pineal gland, in ephemeral ice converging for a brief moment on a window pane in winter.
I culture crystals with water soluble minerals on supports. The resulting crystals’ patterns depend mainly on my collaborators: the materials' inherent geometric properties, the gravitational pull of the earth, and water's evaporation/cooling process. The work pays homage to minerals and crystals, the essential elements without which our bodies cannot exist. The alchemical process explores a poetic reunion with nature, and expression of the sublime unity and connection between nature and humanity. It manifests nature's power, its ubiquitous presence, and humanity’s intrinsic entwinement.