SCULPTURE

From the moment I wake until my mind drifts to sleep; thoughts are ever held captive by beauty. Beauty within every aspect of our existence … the raw, the “ugly,” the minute; these moments, these gifts encapsulate what it means to be human. Assembling the broken pieces of our stories, our souls, our bodies … embracing, rather than rejecting the reality of death, decay, loss. These are the driving forces beneath my work and the elements to which I am perpetually drawn. The beautiful weight of stone, the exquisite hue of a weathered saw, the texture of a discarded railway tie. These are stunning and I cannot walk by and ignore what has been discarded as hopeless, useless … junk. I have been rejected. I have felt hopeless. I have been ignored. I have been abused.  

An artist must be transparent, authentic, vulnerable; if the process does not involve risk or fear, then he or she is not pushing their work to new heights. Art is a revelation of the true self; a process of dying to the constraints our culture has engendered and embracing our God given potential. It is not a luxury for the wealthy, but an essential practice within any healthy society. Whether this art form be in the realm of politics, trades, law, science or more traditional forms; embrace it, live it and express your God given potential.   

I lost my son Anthony seven years ago. He died while I was nursing him in the woods; his body went still, his skin became white and one slow trickle of blood ran down his exquisite face. I loved him like no other and he was gone in a moment, as was any illusion I had of control. We have no control. Life, nature is wild, untameable, flawless. It is a force beyond any we have the capacity to know or understand. I cannot look at creation and refuse to believe there is a creator, an entity greater than myself at work. While we may never comprehend the why; we can trust that the broken fragments of our lives can be woven together into a gorgeous tapestry infinitely more beautiful than what came before.  

There is life after loss. There is joy after pain. And there is new life waiting to spring from the ashes of what came before if we can learn to accept and embrace every aspect within the landscape of our lives. My work embraces the direction a given work wants to go, rather than trying to control the outcome. It gives freedom; the freedom to fall, to be broken, refined, mended, imperfect, re-assembled … it is finding the inherent beauty within each and every object, emotion or experience. It is my journey to begin anew and the tapestry of my soul.