“Jaw, Paw, Hand, Drawer”
buckeye, bronze, aluminum, and rubber
This sculpture is part of a larger body of work entitled “Domestication for Survival”. The works uses specific animals as metaphor to investigate the roles within a family dynamic. “Jaw, Paw, Hand, Drawer” is in part, a self portrait.
At some point wolves became dogs. Some say, we as a people did this. I do not believe this to be the case. I believe it was a choice of the animal. They chose to restrain, or remove their wildness for comfort, and dependability. In either case the process of domestication is just that, a process.
This work started as a response to some of the internal complications of being a husband, father, and man. About the internal tension of violence and about the relationship of anger to protection.
A fire in a fireplace serves a home and it’s inhabitants. Bringing warmth to the atmosphere. That same fire in the home, but outside of the fireplace, destroys the home. “Jaw, Paw, Hand, Drawer” is about putting emotions and reactions into their proper place. In the wild an animal has no need for cutlery, their claws and teeth serve as forks and knives. The tools of the jaw and paw are ones of necessity, tools of utilitarian violence and communication. We as a people need these tools still (in their proper place and order) but we do not have physical claws or teeth built for this purpose. So we manifest tools of violence and dominant communication. Speaking for myself: my attitude, my anger, and my reactionary selfish nature need to be taken out of the jaw and paw. They need to be passed through the hands to be stored in the drawer for a necessary time, but not always at the ready.
