Personal Statement

I am a storyteller, sculpting three-dimensional pieces that relate historically, biblically and to epic literary themes. Throughout my career, nature has been a constant influence in my work.

 Early in my career, pre-Idaho my work exemplified exact proportional geometry.  It was calculated and disciplined, requiring significant mathematical analysis to create. In Idaho’s wide-open wild spaces and endless skies, my work has become more visceral.  This transformation began with a dream and continues as I hike through Idaho’s alpine forests and desolate sagebrush were I often come across remnants of animals. I collect structures from different species, and then join them in new ways to create unique creatures that speak of timeless themes.  Although I could not have known it at the time, but I began this new journey six months before my fathers’ death.  In retrospect, I see now that I was unconsciously preparing for this life-altering event. 

The work under the title The Hero's Journey illustrates my personal journey of discovery; of standing up and becoming my own man and of leaving one life to create my own. 

Dealing with raw, intensely personal emotions, this work is elemental.  Foregoing the disciplined and mathematical, I do not pause for measurement while I create.  Instead, I allow my emotion and the shamanic charge of the bones to create something new in the moment.    

The slides  begin with an uncertain creature-wobbling forward to begin its transformation, the slide progress through the first steps of self-discovery, vulnerable in its newness, before becoming fully formed, resolute and transcendent.  The concluding slides are a reflection of the life I am creating - a family of my own. 

This work has taken me through life’s losses and transformations and continues to shape the practice of my art.