Artist Statement

The great sculpting masters have always inspired me. I had ability for drawing and painting, and was intrigued by the challenge of a medium that resisted the sculptors’ hand. Unfortunately I wasn’t born in Italy where marble was readily available. The only natural materials in abundant quantities here in Minnesota, were water and wood. Water can be frozen and sculpted, but I wasn’t keen to invest the time in something so fragile and short lived. So I turned to wood, it was readily available and I hunted for scraps in dumpsters and salvaged pieces from old pallets from which to carve animals and small scale pieces.When the opportunity came to carve a larger commissioned piece, it was a real eye opener to try to find quality wood of substantial size. I built a solar kiln to dry my own lumber, and the pieces are numbered so that after curing, the wood can be reassembled with the growth rings in the same order they were cut. The clamping process for large pieces is always a challenge with devices and jigs needed to hold the wood while gluing. In many ways, it would be easier to work in a medium that starts as a block and doesn’t have to be cut, cured and glued together before I even start.