Where does art come from?   Sometimes, working in my studio, there is not always a clear idea of what is being made and at other times I know long before the piece is even started. The later tends to be more conceptual and the former tends to be more intuitive. Each way of working tends to have advantages over the other. Intuitive work seems to have an enigmatic quality, rendering it more open to interpretation and armored in the mystery of it's meaning. Conceptual work is perhaps better at expressing ideas, or at least the idea is the underlying meaning of the work, providing a sense of closure for the viewer. These strengths are a potential weakness and can render work either inert or to didactic. I try to make work somewhere between these two extremes. Cohesively, the show can be viewed as an exploration of these ideas. This show is best viewed not as a single thought but as individual pieces or smaller related groups.

The majority of the work is based in human figuration and at times references sculptural history as well as contemporary culture. Often, the work combines these incongruent elements in a manner that asserts larger questions with anthropological undertones ranging from social to political. The end result is an odd symbiosis of past and present.

-Dirk Staschke