Inspired largely by artificial grass, plastic flowers, and game pieces in Monopoly, these artworks question the American dream of home ownership as symbol for success.  In pre-fab(ulous) environments, audience members can construct their own Happy Meal homes and help populate the subdivision game board while in Migration Station they can twist relative direction.

Migration Station, August 2010

Often birds make do with any materials they find to make their homes weaving a few pieces of nylon rope, Easter basket grass, or kite string into their natural nests.  For my birdhouses, I combined artificial roses, leaves, and grass with sewer pipes to make a luxury high-rise that points to nature like a road sign while only offering potential tenets an isolated, plastic habitat.

pre-fab(ulous) environments, February 2009 (updated Nov 2009)

Audience members can participate in pre-fab(ulous) environments by constructing their own Happy Meal homes to help populate the subdivision game board.  Near the vinyl game board, there is a row of styrofoam houses that are each 8ft tall making a larger subdivision.  In the window of one house, a video of 1960's commercials that promote faster, easier ways to prepare food.  In another house, audience members can enter and play with a table full of Monopoly game pieces also painted light blue.  In the third house, an audio plays a song about subdivisions and one can peek in the key hole of the door to see more subdivisions.

Art houses from divertissement, (2005-2008)
“Divertissement” is the a brief entertainment or diversion, usually between the acts of a play.  In my body of artwork titled divertissement, each piece explores types of diversions that are all to easy to get distracted by while pursuing happiness.  This series of pieces utilizes the Monopoly hotel game pieces, artificial grass, and glass jars to portray approaches to “success” varying from a collectable to a trap.