The vision of a perfect world is easily understood as popular escapism, but it has served both capitalism and communism as a sort of economic reward - perpetually staying out of reach as the individual toils towards the goal. It seems obvious then that the Utopia has become a common subject of fiction, but after years of predicting, Modern society has cultivated a prescriptive vocabulary for depicting how the future should appear. The visual aesthetics of Blade Runner, 2001 and the Jetsons have had just as much impact on our perception of the future as have true innovations in the fields of physical and social sciences. 

    It is irrefutable that these existing notions of the future are starting to seep into our present experience. We model our inventions after our ideals, confusing the happiness desire for prescribed utopic visions. Any doubters of this need only to see the Aptera hybrid car, the Dubai skyline, or any contemporary airport. But as this imagined world becomes manifest in our own, one must question whether the iconic future of white skyscrapers and floating cars is truly better than an undeveloped forest. Is there such a thing as a universal utopia?

    The scenes depicted in Handmade Utopia are contemporary. Urban architecture dominates much of the work; a motif that is an equally recurrent theme in humanity's conquest of geographic space. The sleek forms of the Modern city provide the futuristic qualities we have come to expect as signs of our own progress. But by depicting these scenes with a clear sense of the hand's touch, I maintain the presence of the living being amidst the confines of the city. Both of these realms are reflected in my materials and mark-making: wood is cut by factory blades and by my own hand, texture is created through urban decay as well as organic materials (oils, shellac etc...). 
Many of the works are also constructed from remnants of real buildings (the wood used in On Track was taken from the skeleton of a burned-down house), which serves as a connection between the fantastic scenes depicted in the imagery and true physical reality. These metropolitan artifacts also bring an element of the past into the conversation about the future, creating images of the present that have ambiguous origins - a trait that suits the uncertain role of painting itself in the postmodern era. What can ancient materials say about what lies ahead?
Time's constantly evolving nature pushes visions of the future ahead of our perspective, keeping our ideal worlds - our Utopias - just out of reach. Or at least that's how it seems. When our fiction and economics inscribe us with a predetermined future, what chance is there for us to escape? Does each generation's dream of the future become the home for the next? 

    Is this Utopia?