I use the visual language of sculpture to provide a concrete form that, like poetry, alludes to the common emotions underlying human experience. As a sculptor, I fill the space between words with tangible forms. Often the words I choose as titles are taken from lines in poems. In the process the words act as guides, allowing me to explore ideas and feelings and develop them so they attain a visual and tactile presence.
I have been working primarily in wood, using my understanding of the ironies of the process to inform the resulting sculptures. I begin with boards that have been planed until they are smooth, then glued together (laminated), and ultimately carved so that the final forms reference the original curved forms and rough bark of the trees from which they came. The use of wood allows me to incorporate contrasting textures and forms, which serve as metaphors for many of the complexities and conflicts inherent within relationships in the physical world as well as the human world. I am interested in the connection between the life and death cycles of both nature and human beings as a part of nature.
Recently I have begun to explore other media and to investigate issues having narrative components, especially the impact of memory. I am incorporating viewer response into my work and integrating my art with my background in psychology.