Statement–May 8, 2007, on Symbols, first published in Po10tial Magazine, November 2011

Michael Boles, My Pretty Beaten Heart, 2007. Aluminum, bronze, onyx, and lead.
35" x 23" x 1." Private collection in Amsterdam.

The symbols, shapes, signs, signals, and phrases that guide us in our pursuits of everyday peace and tranquility permeate our culture. Challenging these things is a constant for artists in some way. It's nothing new to bash established norms. It is the legacy of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art.

I feel shapes, signs, and symbols are the touchstones of culture and are those things that provide a constant in a world that is on a bullet train to the unknown. They are simple, identifiable realities. They are the dirt under our feet. They transcend language, and they are only a problem when their context is disrupted.