After decades of making art and not showing it in public, when covid hit, I thought—"what is the one thing I will have regretted not doing if I die tomorrow"—it was showing my art in public.
So on a whim (I was living in Long Beach at the time), I decided to check to see what was happening at the Long Beach Museum of Art. I don't know why exactly. It was 2021.
I saw that they had an auction happening, but the deadline had passed for submission—I wrote them anyway. They accepted a few of my pieces.
At that auction, I made my very first sale—a modular ceramic sculpture with interchangeable pieces—to the Director of The Long Beach Museum of Art—Ron Nelson.
At the time I was trying to figure out how to "animate" clay and make it stand and move and walk—without relying on cylindrical or box structures so common in ceramic sculpture. I landed on interlocking pieces.
That sculpture set off a chain reaction that led to the building of several giant modular architectural scale sculptures and fully immersive art installations for The Torrance Art Museum, The Getty, and The Long Beach Museum of Art.
But that very first one. The one that Ron bought—is now part of The Long Beach Museum of Art's permanent collection. So very honored.
Thank you Ron and LBMA. Thanks for taking a chance.
@ronlbma@lbmaorg@torranceartmuseum@gettymuseum
