Since late August I have been working on a sculpture that centers on my experience of traveling to and being in Peekaboo Canyon in the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. So far I have been constructing an “armature” to hold my rooftop tent. Outside the passenger window of the tent will be a small diorama of Peekaboo Canyon. The armature is a loose stand-in for my vehicle, a 2019 Toyota 4runner. Though the dimensions and vehicle I’m representing are specific, I am only choosing specific sections to “sample”. So far the truck is an accumulation of individual sculptures integrated into the 2x4 structure that creates the frame or “cabin”, a reference to domestic architecture and my own time spent as a carpenter. The steering column is a branch from a cedar tree, I’ve added transmission levers and turn signals to the ends of the branches, and turned a walnut spike for the center of a chrome racing steering wheel. The steering wheel being a reference to my uncles 1969 Camaro Z28. The center console is replaced with a sculpture of a caged canary encased in smoke on a pile of white monster, blue American spirits, and cinnamon Zyn, reflected back down through the floor. A reference to canaries in coal mines. The front wheels are Clydesdale hooves, there is a floating mouth and tongue in the driver seat, my family brand(4R), my ring finger severed by my actual wedding band, my #18 molar, a spinning wagon wheel, a brass arts and crafts chandelier, a severed gas pump handle in a jerry can, my camping kitchen setup, a chrome first gen 4Runner bumper, a Sasquatch drawing, my water cooler, a sculpted 4Runner spoiler, a cow hyde I tanned myself, jacks and jack stands, cinder blocks, tree branches… these things happening on the armature reflect anxiety, chaos, and the danger to be found on the “road”. In the end the piece is less about a specific place than the experience of getting there. The road feels like life to me and the canyon respite. As I’m writing this, I’m 3d printing a proof that will act as a central component to the truck windows, which will be a pretty direct reference to my truck, traced from the actual windows, and will be mirrored acrylic. Windows being a space where we see ourselves reflected in our surroundings. There is a 1:1 thing happening with scale and found objects that root the piece in reality, but the inclusion of paused moments and surreal juxtapositions, obscure and confound that reality. I have no finished sketches of this project, loads of loose sketches or problem solving scribbles, but I have no idea what this piece will look like in the end, or how long it will take, and that’s sort of the point. There is something happening in the studio right now that happens on the road, where you are alone, really alone, no one knows where you are, and you just have to trust yourself, your next step, next intention, set a trajectory and just go.