Tools
These tools have outlasted their useful function and exist now as relics of the past. Their historic and aesthetic value invite myriad associations. Saw blades remind us of our recent past, natural resources and industrial purposes. The stone age tools were used by the earliest inhabitants and date to 12,000 years ago. They were all found by the artist while walking plowed fields near the ancient quarry site near Hixton, Wisconsin. They are legally obtained with the landowner's permission. Little appreciated by collectors, tools are necessary to the survival needs of everyday life — butchering animals, preparing hides, making clothing and weapons, woodworking, cutting plants and grasses, digging, tattooing and engraving. Some speculate they may have been made and used primarily by women.
The visual contrast of the colorful, fine-grained orthoquratzite against the rusted blades mimics the experience of finding them in plowed earth. It becomes apparent upon examination that while some are random shapes, many are made to culturally informed standards. Most accommodate the hand. Some are hafted into a wood or bone handle. Paradigms and templates for their manufacture and use were passed on through countless generations over thousands of years. The beauty of a particular stone could not have been lost on the user. They suggest an intimacy that has been lost with the industry of contemporary man.
Stone artifacts are attached to saw blades with neodymium magnets. A removable epoxy attaches magnet to stone.
EXHIBITIONS
> 2018: We Went to the Woods, The Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Tools, 2016
found objects
34" x 34" x 3"
60 lbs.
The visual contrast of the colorful, fine-grained orthoquratzite against the rusted blades mimics the experience of finding them in plowed earth. It becomes apparent upon examination that while some are random shapes, many are made to culturally informed standards. Most accommodate the hand. Some are hafted into a wood or bone handle. Paradigms and templates for their manufacture and use were passed on through countless generations over thousands of years. The beauty of a particular stone could not have been lost on the user. They suggest an intimacy that has been lost with the industry of contemporary man.
Stone artifacts are attached to saw blades with neodymium magnets. A removable epoxy attaches magnet to stone.
EXHIBITIONS
> 2018: We Went to the Woods, The Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Tools, 2016
found objects
34" x 34" x 3"
60 lbs.