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Thesis Show

Amthu is a land where strange creatures roam,

A place that no human calls home.

Amthu is a world created to house all of my various creations. I decided that though the characters are vastly different they all reside within the same world, though not necessarily at the same time.

The world of Amthu is roughly the same size as our Earth and currently contains 19 different regions. It is a world that was previously devastated by war because of this no humans exist here. They all died out unable to live in harmony with Amthu and each other. Now, Amthu is populated with magical creatures, sentient plants and bipedal animals.

The building of Amthu is far from over. It is a place that will continue to grow as I expand the lore. Amthu was born of a need to place all of my hobbies into one container, its creation allowed me to go back to my anthropology roots, draft maps, write a language, compose music and create new/amusing creatures. I found the freedom to use all of my interests in one project in a way that united them instead of leaving me feeling fragmented and spinning in too many directions at once.

So I hope you will enjoy exploring the vignettes from Amthu as much as I enjoyed creating them.

One more note before you continue, I’ve been asked so if the show is about the world I created why is the show called “I just like Teacups, Motherfucker” and not “Welcome to Amthu”? Well, throughout the last two years I have been exploring what I find interesting in art and I tend towards Pop surrealism and other arts that would be considered ‘low’ by some. This has led to an inclusion of certain so called ‘symbols’ in my work, everyone sees a teacup and says “Alice in Wonderland”. The truth is I just like teacups, I collect them and I have a large quantity of them and I have to keep myself from buying them in antique/thrift shops. I also often do not like or have not seen some of the source material that my work has been compared to which leads to confusion between me and the person viewing my work. My honest answer of I just like teacups has been refuted as to being the real reason they are in my work, hence the motherfucker that was added onto the end of the title because I felt it was the only thing that punctuated exactly how I feel about not being believed about intent. Here for the show, the teacups are a stand in for any other tropes that people might think they spot in my work. The title is a reminder that maybe ‘symbols’ are only symbolic to some people and can mean entirely different things to others and to keep an open mind. Happy viewing!

The Show

Gallery Soundtrack

Click here to listen to the gallery soundtrack and read about their histories.

Detail Galleries

Click the Images to Visit the Galleries

Amthu Map Table Detail
Eggicorn Detail
Scruff’s Bar Detail
Folding Map Table: Birch Wood, Polymer Clay. 10ft x 10ft. 2021

For more on the world of Amthu Check out the Atlas!

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