This show came from working outside in depth of the Maine winter. Nearly everywhere dynamic physical processes were interacting to create tiny, temporary moments of wonder. Working on each other wind, conductive heat transfer and fluid flow would etch designs into the heavy mud of our job site. The freeze/thaw of the town's central canal would create spontaneous symphonies. I was regularly stopped in my tracks. I began documenting their instances, calling them temporary aisthesis machines.
At the time I was building homes and also developing my roommate's family homestead. In these activities similarly, beauty shows up almost by accident, everywhere. Sometimes it is in the way newly stained clapboards lean against bare drywall, or our winter tea - blackberry leaves from annual pruning - hangs drying from the coppice wood on the ceiling. I began to see our activities as aesthetic machines as well.
The machines were time-bounded, and as the season warmed there was a growing urgency to share with others before they disappeared. In the raging sleepless happiness that follows months of cold and hunger I hastily threw together this show.
Wonderful Things Are Happening Everywhere Always was the title, theme and content of the show. It was hosted at the New Kenduskeag Gallery (which was just a name I made up for my house).
Very fortunately I'd been shown the value of inclusivity and openness in producing art experiences. Therefore the show featured an open invitation for anyone to bring and exhibit anything. Art of all types showed up. There were meticulous photorealistic drawings, installations, drawing and music machines, assemblage, culinary contributions, performance (I was even temporarily married!) children's self portraits… The house was packed, even more than salon style, and because of this something very magical happened: it became impossible to distinguish what was and was not intentionally included in the show. The objects of daily life - canning jars on pallet wood shelves, construction shims, nails - all took on the same art status. Suddenly everything in the world was the seat of its own aisthesis….
