Cartoons, action figures and skateboarding have been constants in my life. Each has provided different types of escape for me, but also gave me the distance to realize that this fantasy world was only real as long as I wanted it to be. I could choose to ignore the inconsistencies and just enjoy the escape for what it was.

Action figures, from Star Wars characters to G.I. Joe, provided me a chance to develop my own worlds and battles that took place under my bunk bed, in my sandbox and in window wells. Each place was transformed into my fantasy world where the action figures had feelings, believed in right and wrong and even ate dinner.

Through skateboarding I was able to look at everyday objects and see different possibilities beyond what they were intended for. I noticed what things could also be without changing what they looked like. Something as simple as handrails became objects to slide down.

My recent work incorporates all of these ideas and methodologies. I’m creating fantasylands from everyday materials I see around me. The objects from these fantasylands exist in people’s homes, covering their windows and even as parts of their clothing. In one installation, a tiny helicopter circles a miniature mountain peak, its wireless camera sending images into a nearby comfortable viewing room. Shadowboxes of cartoon beach scenes attach to every window of a suburban house. My Shoulder Shade Tree is a small tree made of wood and fabric that attaches to a sports coat. The objects from my fantasy worlds want to be believed in. They want the viewer to ignore how pathetic they look. They want the viewer to disregard what they are made of and how they are made. They want to be played with. They want the viewer to become part of their reality.