I began designing and creating steel sculpture, art furniture and sculptural lighting in 1994. As a child my mom had worked as an artist for Hallmark Cards and my dad was a steel executive whose humble beginnings were that of a blacksmith’s son in western Kansas.  I guess you could say my becoming a metal artist is pretty much in my DNA. Mom encouraged me to pursue art at an early age and with her instruction on technique and perspective I became a prolific drawer. Art continued to be a big part of my life throughout grade school and I began winning contests and awards for my work. During my high school years, I worked at a friend’s family owned equipment rental business. It was here that I learned to weld and started assembling crude sculptures from salvaged scrap metal. This change in medium was a turning point for me, my work now had tactile dimensionality, had mass and took up space.

 

Throughout this transition I often worked to retain the visual elements of my drawings and envision them in 3-dimensional form. As the renowned metal artist David Smith said, “I belong with the painters”. This concept still drives much of my work today and the idea of blurring the lines of dimensional perception is a  theme that continues to interest me. My process starts with sketches and drawings that are reworked until the desired outcome is achieved.  From these a full-size drawing is created that can be deconstructed into patterns for the sculpture.  Steel components are then cut and welded into the final form.  From here the finishing process begins which includes the application of various metal finishing technics and pigments.

 

For me, art is a bridge between an artist’s mind and the outside world; an abstraction from what the world sees and how the artist interprets.