“Special Powers,” my second solo exhibition at Gallery Diet, was preoccupied largely with ideas of mysticism, magic, and the artist’s role as a shaman. I was interested in the ways that the mundane can be incredibly profound, while simultaneously being utterly ridiculous. Using elements from pop culture, I created an alchemy where these concepts can co-exist.

“Big Red Ball” is a large scale ball that is inflated to fill an entire room. This operates as a metaphor for anxiety and neuroses that grow and expand until they have taken up so much space they become claustrophobic and threaten to burst open at any moment. The viewer is left with the question: How big can it get and how much can you contain before it becomes a problem?

“I Like Moist Things” is a water fountain made of letters carved out of natural sponges that drip intermittently, creating ambient sound, onto the soaked words into a custom kiddy pool. The text was overtly playful, ridiculous, and sexual and was conceived as a kind of shrine to our humdrum thoughts.

Created during a time when I was really sick the wishful aphorism “EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY” became a mantra. Made with graphite and childlike block lettering, this simple drawing took on a meditative quality. Through the action of drawing I was willing this idea into existence. Later recreated as a silkscreen edition of 45, this work focuses on the ability of words and ideas to become beliefs.