Artist Statement
Drawn to the idea that art is a metaphor, I echo Martin Puryear’s "value of the referential quality of art, the fact that a work can allude to things or states of being without in any way representing them."¹ For my work to evoke the suggestive quality that I desire, I have altered, combined, and presented common materials (wood, steel, paper, thread, paint) into a format that, hopefully, stirs a certain sense of familiarity, either to the materials themselves, or to the alluded content.

Additionally, the idea that labor is meaningful and pleasurable is essential to the development of my work. I respect "the belief that the manner of doing anything has a certain aesthetic importance of its own independent of the importance of what is done."² I enjoy the process as much as the finished piece. If the process is not enjoyed, the work and the workmanship become laboriously tedious and tiresome. To create with the direct contact and intimate interaction of my hands with my materials gives me great satisfaction. With every piece I create, I strive to strike a balance between the conceptual aspect, the act of making, and the object itself.

¹John Elderfield, ed. Martin Puryear (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2007) 2.
²David Pye. The Nature and Art of Workmanship (London: The Herbert Press, 1995) 127.