Into my work, I incorporate ideas from Dadaism, Surrealism, and Constructivism. These three artistic movements from about 100 years ago each represented a different understanding of chance and control, but are connected in ways I find fascinating. They each addressed the relationship between the human experience, technology, and the imagination. I'm also influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and its emphasis on excellent craftsmanship. I create objects that celebrate different kinds of mysticism and concrete realities. I build sculptural works with seemingly mismatched components and ideas that are connected in unexpected ways. We do this automatically, but I like to push the process forward.
I grew up with a lot of time to read, play in an enchanted swamp, and make tools, ceramics, music, instruments, books, sculptures, treehouses, and piles of rocks. Our family appreciated creativity, and we made many of our own useful everyday items. I think one comes out of an environment such as this with some understanding of humanity's drive to make things.
I turn clients' ideas into something tangible that works on many metaphorical and concrete levels. I like the idea that an artwork is connected to abstract properties of numbers, and shares a measurable characteristic with something in the natural world. This can create the possibility for a moment of discovery, and moments of discovery have the power to pull human societies together.
Artists can create objects that have value through skillful manipulation of material and processes, as well as a conscientious exercise of ideas. One of my aims in making art is to capture certain essences of human experience and objective reality. Objective facts contain a kind of incontrovertible magic. If you break a hologram into thousands of pieces, every piece contains the whole picture, in a simplified form. One could make the analogy that all artists are making individual pieces of one hologram, or one picture of what it means to be a conscious being. I see myself as part of a continuum of human activity which defines the nature of human activity. Archaeologists often unearth religious objects that are considered works of art with an intrinsic value beyond an attributed value. Their intrinsic value comes from the application of intention.
Any kind of artist encounters the idea of the audience. Art has a connection to the economic world, but all art has an inseparable altruistic component, in that it is done for others.
I work in stainless steel, bronze, aluminum, and brass. I use a wide variety of processes including casting, machining, forming and fabricating. I work with glass, plastic, and wood and other materials, as well. I employ the use of found objects and images. I draw ideas from the physical sciences, world religions & philosophies, literature, and history.
Selected sculpture projects:
Bike Rack, The Roasterie Cafe, Kansas City, Missouri, 2009
Design for Abacus sculpture, 2009
"Pierced Sky" Cohen Memorial, Overland Park, Kansas, 2008
Design for "Data Fortress," for Cerner Corporation, 2007
Proposal for "Diatom Shelter," for Kansas River Expression of Soul Project, Lawrence, Kansas, 2007
"Apparatus for the Divination of Friendliness and Influence" Overland Park Convention Center, Overland Park, Kansas, 2003
"Tombaugh Telescope," "Monument to Jack Kilby," and "Sound Board," Legends Shopping Center, Kansas City, Kansas, 2006
"The Bean Counter," H & R Block World Headquarters, Kansas City, Missouri, 2006
"Anthology" performance in collaboration with Joel Sanderson for the observance of International Dadaism Month in Lawrence, Kansas, 2006
Design for "Three Wide" sculpture for the Kansas Speedway, 2005
Design for Trailhead Tower monument for Kansas City, Missouri, 2004
"Apparatus for the Transmission of Frozen Music," private collection, 2004
"Final Resting Place," Fort Lee, New Jersey and Petersburg, Alaska
Works donated to the Lawrence Arts Center annual auction, 1988 to present
"Final Tribute," National D-Day Memorial, Bedford Virginia, 1998
Design for "Sky Bridge," for Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base |
