new artist statement still too long

I am an artist because I grew up playing in the woods of South Carolina by my self. I tried to watch cartoons but I was always made to go outside. Once there, I definitely did what I wanted so long as I was home for dinner. Now I put a few restrictions on myself. Perhaps parameters or challenges are better words than restrictions. Either way the kid that built forts is still here. I set up games for myself to play. Sometimes the game is to find the most intriguing details surrounding a person or material or situation and highlight them. I highlight the complexity of these details and push them towards something people can relate to. Sometimes the idea is still just to play and relate to people on that level.

I’m a sculptor because I like touching different types of material and learning to use the tools that manipulate them. I am notably curious and am always trying to figure out how things work. Many times I have started projects simply by studying how a program or piece of equipment is most effective. I define and change the meaning of "effective" along the way, and tend to add other media as an emphatic gesture. Listening is a big deal to me. To others, to myself and my surroundings. Currently this concern is obvious because I'm working with other people and developing stories, but it fits with my sense of materiality also since I usually come upon something I intend to use without automatically knowing what I will use it for.

I've lately been making stories with people based off of real events and trying to work with them to communicate what is most compelling to them. Each story is told by a different person and can be heard through your cell phone as you make your way around an exhibition of mixed media vignettes. An element of which is a whittled portrait of the author. I have always learned lots from a good story and a good storyteller. Loud with emphatic gestures, slow and soft with the perfect descriptions, too many tangents, timing, punch lines, climax, and morals, all of it leaves an impression of some sort. I've really just set up excuses to talk with people more about it.