I am a Graduate of Towson
University's Art Department. I specialized in Crafts with emphasis on sculptural
works in Ceramic, Stained Glass, and Metals.
I have traveled and studied around the United States while enlisted in the U.S.
Coast Guard. I Started with a tour of duty onboard the U.S.C.G. Cutter Iris
in Astoria, Oregon (filming location for Free Willy, Short Circuit,
and Kindergarten Cop.) I completed formal training as an electronic technician
in Petaluma California, and while stationed at U.S.C.G. Long Range Aids to Navigation
Monitor Station in Kodiak Alaska, I finished received an Associates degree at
the University of Alaska Anchorage, Kodiak
Campus.
I believe that art reflects the experiences of our lives. Everything we see,
do and experience either physically or spiritually is an inspiration to greatness.
We all chose to act upon that inspiration in different ways, be it in personal
actions or expressive creativity. In my creations I focus on three main aspects
of life for inspiration:
In my search for inspiration, I found that Native American and Asian philosophies share a common thread: a strong connection to the natural world and a belief that everything has a spirit. Culturally each has a specific style of art. What I have tried to do is create my own vision of their philosophy, which lead me to two series of works.
I first started exploring the sculptural qualities of glass after realizing the potential the medium had for similar lines as found in Japanese Origami. I wondered if I could successfully recreate the paper forms in glass. It was easy to see the correlation between geometry and paper folding; the next step was to try and recreate the geometric forms in cut glass. The result was the first in the series, Dragon, Spirit of Ancestry. What ties the Japanese art form to the Native culture, besides the close affinity to the natural world, is in the selection and naming of each piece. Native American tradition suggests that each animal embodies human traits from which we can learn life lessons. The concept is traditional, however, many of the names come from more contemporary sources. The Origami series has a long way to go in creating more sculptures.
The second series I began to work on was the Earth Spirits. I wanted to explore masks in glass. I didn’t want to just carve a mask to form a mold; I wanted to use actual faces from people I knew. This series works with the concept of Yin and Yang, universal opposites. Each spirit has (or will have) its universal opposite. Even the faces chosen emphasize this concept. For example, Water Spirit is a female face, and by Zen concepts, water is female energy. Her opposite is the Fire Spirit, a male energy represented by a male face. Making the mold was the easy part; however, getting glass to form smoothly into a mask took a lot of trial and error. The Plant Spirit was the first of the series. I look closely at each mask mold to find the right face for the spirit. In the case of the Plant Spirit, the mask resembled a leaf. I have at least two more Earth Spirits in the works now: Day Spirit and Earth Spirit to balance Night and Wind.