To Create Something I’ve Never Seen

I’ve never been satisfied limiting myself to one medium so for several decades I’ve primarily focused on woodworking, photography and digitally manipulated imagery. With these mediums, I regularly cross the line between realism and abstraction and on occasion slip into the surreal. Looking for an aesthetic visual quality of a work often creates more questions than answers particularly when the finished piece holds little resemblance to whatever original concept I had in mind when I started. Since most work is a series of experiments, the challenge of having to rethink the work is often the most rewarding part of the process.

Recently I’ve started creating lamps or illuminated sculptures. I like the processes of merging different materials needed to create the skeleton of the “shade”. Then I use different types of papers for various effects one being a thin tissue that is layered in such a way as to create a landscaped surface. The whole process can take weeks to complete as many small parts are glued together - sometimes taking hours to dry before the work can continue. The ambient light emitted from the finished works is warm and comforting - not easily translated in photographs.

When I was much younger, long before I had the capabilities or means to create, I used to imagine great works in all sorts of mediums plastered on the walls and scattered across the countryside. Years later when I decided it was time to build some of these things - I found it difficult to translate the vision into reality. I’d spend hours trying to completely design the piece in my head. By the time I had it figured out I was so bored with it - it never found fruition. Since then I’ve learned that in the spontaneity of playing modifications sometimes lead to a whole new frontier of work. Occasionally a totally intentioned design is created but more often the finished works are the result of a series of variations or accidents encountered along the way. Hopefully the result is something I’ve never seen before.