I make abstract wooden wall sculptures, combining natural sticks with more machine tooling and used wood. Often my found wood is weathered, worm eaten or stressed by the life it has lived. I combine this with colorful boards I have painted and sanded to highlight the grain. The tension, beauty and weirdness of the natural with artificial is what interests me. Sometimes artifice is stressed with glitter, metallic spray paint and geometric designs and sometimes the work appears more natural with subdued colors and bare wood.

My creative process is often in response to wood, be it a stick or the grain in a board. When making a piece, I will paint layers of paint, sand through the layers and then stain the wood prior to selecting its’ contrasting piece of old or natural wood. The old wood may have peeling paint, weathered wood grain or old worm holes. New wood is often colorful and smooth. Beyond their visual appeal, they represent the aging process of growth and decay.

From here I decide on the shape and size of the piece, often symmetrical. I want these pieces to touch the wall with sensitivity and allow the viewer to see the hollowness of the form. Sometimes I employ visual illusions, making something appear as it is not. The purpose of this is to heighten the viewers awareness of the moment. Although serious in content, I want the pieces to feel playful.

Each series explores an additonal interest.  The shield or boat forms are female and figurative, these are the most personally expressive.  The cross forms are setting up an opposition.  The Inverse Series ends where it began in the shape of a board, a nod to wood processed for construction.  Many of these exporations are in answer to a question...like can I make the power of growth evident?