Title: The Wait
Medium: Assemblage
Dimensions (h x w x d): 11x14x5
Artist Statement: My cigar box series pairs the fleeting luxury of a cigar with the enduring weight of American cultural tropes. A cigar is a momentary indulgence—smoked, savored, and gone—its ornate box left behind as a relic of a short-lived pleasure. Inside each box, I stage scenes and symbols that speak to ideas we’ve been told will last forever: patriotism, religion, consumerism, freedom, and other defining myths of American identity. By juxtaposing the ephemeral with the supposedly everlasting, the work questions what we choose to preserve, celebrate, or discard. The cigar boxes, once containers of personal enjoyment, become miniature theaters for examining national narratives—some comforting, some troubling, all deeply ingrained. In this contrast, I aim to highlight the fragility of the ideals we think are permanent, and the way objects and symbols take on new meaning when reframed in a different context.
Title: The Wait
Medium: Assemblage
Dimensions (h x w x d): 11x14x5
Artist Statement: My cigar box series pairs the fleeting luxury of a cigar with the enduring weight of American cultural tropes. A cigar is a momentary indulgence—smoked, savored, and gone—its ornate box left behind as a relic of a short-lived pleasure. Inside each box, I stage scenes and symbols that speak to ideas we’ve been told will last forever: patriotism, religion, consumerism, freedom, and other defining myths of American identity. By juxtaposing the ephemeral with the supposedly everlasting, the work questions what we choose to preserve, celebrate, or discard. The cigar boxes, once containers of personal enjoyment, become miniature theaters for examining national narratives—some comforting, some troubling, all deeply ingrained. In this contrast, I aim to highlight the fragility of the ideals we think are permanent, and the way objects and symbols take on new meaning when reframed in a different context.
