When I was a kid, my dad took me fishing and I caught a fish. While the fish was on a chain stringer in the water, I looked at it and felt such a strong connection to it, that I couldn’t eat it. Or any other animal. That fish prompted my path to veganism and is a symbol for my life choices.
What makes a person an icon? What contributions are considered iconic? Icon trading cards examine the answers to those questions through figures I find culturally significant.
Currently working on “Big Fish School of Fish” for the city of Havre de Grace, a 12’ long fish and 16’ off the ground, made of small stainless steel fish, welded together; fish have been on my mind. “Fish in the Sky” and “Fish Out of Water” have been recurring themes in my work over the years, and is an icon for the ordinary becoming extraordinary. “Holy Fish” is an exclamation that Robin might have said to Batman to emphasize the outrageousness of a situation.
Gears and ferns are two of my favorite symbols. Twenty-some years ago, I made a sketch of an icon blending a gear with a fern. This icon represents the fusion of nature and machine as well as the union of primal with futurism, thus “Techno Primitive”. Wouldn’t it be nice if going forward new technologies and all manner of human existence reflected a true consideration of the natural world? Advanced technology and the natural world can complement one another.
How perverse these times we live in… when we value the right to possess automatic weaponry over the general safety and well-being of our fellow citizens… when we strike down even the most reasonable of restrictions meant to protect innocent lives… when we safeguard the profits of gun manufacturers at the expense of our most vulnerable. We indeed worship a false god.
How does a celebrity icon get created? What started out as a harmless practical joke is slowly becoming a 21st century cultural icon!