I can never remember a time when I did not know I was an artist. Yet, for many years I believed I would earn my living elsewhere. After time spent in those other avenues, I eventually came back around to pick that thing I had kept only for special occasions and became an artist.
Although I have spent the last twenty years of being an artist teaching as my primary emphasis, I find the production of my own work becoming more important to me. I've discovered I want more.
So, about my work. It tends to be jewelry and small sculpture, sometimes hollowware. Usually the pieces are fabricated and hand wrought. I love metal because it is so plastic. I like texture, patinas and surfaces rich in detail. I feel shiny surfaces have their place and usually that place is to contrast with and accentuate the other surfaces.
I have always been drawn to the landscape. Much of my work is about the landscape, that which we see and that which we imagine.
A more recent influence on my work has been some of the ritual objects we use to get us through everyday life, specifically the little wadded up pieces of paper we carry in our pockets. Think business cards, money, recipes, various lists, things written on the back of those gas receipts that were important but have become indecipherable due to the wear and tear of life. Our memory is not just in our head. For better or worse, these various items figure greatly in our interactions with other people. Much of the past year's work has to do with these frayed and folded bits, these torn chronicles of things we were to remember, questions we meant to ask, or are in some other fashion prophetic or profane.
I hope you discover something about my work that strikes a resonant note.
