2017-2018 Public Sculptures

My works are inspired by disappearing roadside Americana. I use recognizable shapes with texture and sometimes brighter colors to create whimsy works. The art created shares an experience of long ago motorway sculpture, before major interstates bypassed the communities, and corporate chain signage dominated the scenery. It is my hope to warm the creative soul and bring happiness to the heart.

Each sculpture occupies and creates its own reality influenced by its immediate surroundings. The work does not rely on one media to evoke the intended response, but takes advantage of compatible materials such as wood, granite, steel, iron and bronze.

When I create art I endeavor to make manifest physically a feeling or emotion I sense in my whole being. These steel sculptures use a series of increasing triangular facets to create a geometric form. Each face catches light in a unique way because it is at a different angle relative to the others. They reach skyward defying gravity.

“CYRO” returns to familiar metaphors of natural symbols that have been the focal point of my sculpture for over 25 years. This symbolic visual language provides an opportunity to synthesize diverse ideas, histories, theories, emotions and opinions into a creative unity. These abstract landscape compositions of natural forces such as earth, water, wind, and air provide the viewer both complicated and minimal interpretations.

The water shape is an important element in this visual and metaphorical vocabulary often presented in its minimal and most recognizable form. The use of stainless steel color and its unique characteristics of light reflection and collection add additional environmental depth to the work.

“CYRO” also reinforces and refreshes the history of metal sculpture. Bridging the gap of the past and present, this new sculpture integrates the tradition of drawing with the latest of digital technology. The textures and color of the work creates an additional visual depth for the viewer with a natural surface that is often in contrast to the mechanical formalism of their construction.

The work explores relationships between fine art and the subcultures of Americana found in hot-rodding, graffiti, and street art—all of which display extremely high technical values developed outside of academia. I identify with these values and am diligent in my attention to the quality and individuality of each work. While working, I think of the customization process that overturns the standardization of automobile mass production into vehicular uniqueness. I continually play with balance, both physical and aesthetic, creating a visual smoothness or sleekness, what I would call “Super Sleek.”

This sculpture is part of a series that allows natural processes to occur. I have chosen to allow this because of the feelings I have towards this body of work. There are elements involved here that allow me to let go of some of my self-imposed restraints; to allow nature to interact more with my thoughts. Rings is a response to a found object from a scrap yard as I have reconfigured it to have a new life.