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The bringing together of recycled mediums and new materials, traditional forms and modern shapes is a mirror of the way our marriage combines our artistic and life passions. The journey of our relationship can be charted by creative projects and innovative design. Many stories of the birth of those projects are here in our portfolio. Our marriage is an on-going learning experience and as a result our individual artistic avenues are constantly crossing and taking new turns. Our best work comes from a meshing of our styles, knowledge and ideas. Add social awareness, recovered trash and a dash of spice and that's us.
I have had a love/hate relationship with design and creation for as long as I can remember. I find inspiration in the everyday; people, punk rock, skateboarding, trash, nature and the urban concretoscape. My inspiration finds form in stencils and spray painting. Cardboard is my primary medium – it is free and reflects the disposable nature of the paintings. Skateboards, like cardboard, extend the notion of a disposable medium, they're constantly getting thrashed, thrown, wet, spit on, run over, broken etc...hybridfire dot com
"Art" is too often representative of a pretentious style that should exist only as a word in quotes or a painting in the galleries of the rich and famous. I've always wanted to be able to do this or do that, be stylish, creative or intriguing but such creative "art" never worked out for me and always lead to hopeless hours of comparison and self degradation. It has only been in realizing the temporal, subjective and personal nature of artistic creation that meaning in an object has taken place for me. Paint it, tear it up, hang it on a wall, throw it out, it might as well be all the same. Let us not be so inhibited by our notions of self importance or delusions of unreachable glory that we fail to do that which is in us, even if it sucks. Create something the best way that you can, love it, hate it, but make it! Find solace in that process.
As a child I said I wanted to be an artist or a writer. I tried writing stories, but later I realized that I mainly made books which were never filled with words. So art won over the two. When the reality of life came around via college I also realized I loved science, statistics, people, research, and really a whole bunch of stuff. In the last year I have discovered there is a term for people like me...I am a Renaissance Soul. My solution to having so many interests is to teach middle school science, take my students into the woods whenever possible, write on my blog, change careers someday, and start to push my art beyond its former limits. I am busy, but I love what I do.
I focus mainly on the skateboard furniture. All the designs are original. The irregular shape of skateboards pushes me from frustration to being more creative and innovative. I maintain some of the original artwork and markings on the boards, but also add my own voice to the picture along with Ben's stencils. In the future I hope to learn welding and incorporate more metal and recycled car parts. Ben's stencils also inspired me to start embellishing clothing with stencils and other tidbits. Now our clothing is covered with a variety of stencils, vintage lace/tatting, buttons, sequins, stars, and decorative topstitching. They have really taken off at the Artisan Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts, which is very exciting and keeps me even more busy!
My blog can be found at jetfuellines.wordpress.com
