Tools of Their Trade
This collection was created mostly while I was in grad school for my MFA at ECU.
While earning my masters, I challenged my own frame of mind on the labor class I was raised in. I began to question the importance of my seeking of higher education in comparison with my commitment and respect for trade skills. Looking at the decline of the trade education and skilled laborers across the country, I questioned what knowledge we would lose along with the skills.
These ideas culminated in a series of large scale outdoor sculptures in the form of tools commonly associated with various labor industries. The construction workers excavator, the carpenters hammer, the mechanics screwdriver.