Artist Statement
My interests are sculptural which is predominantly tactual even though it still possesses
a visual quality. This tactually dominant nature was noticed by me in my early carving.
It is the geometric form in the sculpture and the two-dimensional renderings which are
the obvious link between these works. These forms are very important to me in that
they are the structural basis upon which a three-dimensional language is rooted in the
ideograph (idea-picture). The generative, receptive, processial, and formative content is
always present because of my belief that everything that exists must operate as at least
one of these conditions. The shaft, tetrahedron, and pyramids tend to be generative as
is the cross; circles or spheres are receptive; undulations, waves, and spirals are models
of process; and the square and cube is the purest volumetric form of the formative
condition. Even in my earlier works I intuitively used some of these forms in conjunction
with more figurative elements.
I have continued building on these premises by precisely and systematically adding
extensions to the faces of various polyhedra. These extensions can create spinning and
opening qualities depending on the specific geometric form. The tetrahedron literally
appears to spin as a pinwheel or dance (as in Dance Form), even though by itself,
without such extensions, it is very static. The octahedron is swollen with convex sides
into spheric and ovoid forms within which that same tetrahedron, with its extensions, is
either floating or firmly planted. I had perceived a hint of this merger of the egg and the
octahedron in works of Brancusi. Finally the integration of these opposing forms creates
not only a strong contrapuntal play but also merges the forms into an ancient
historically based image, i.e., the Horus sculptures and the Phoenix. Plant-like qualities
long present in my work still seem subtly to exist but give way to the present suggestion
of bird-like forms.
I feel it is important to become more comprehensive in one’s work while being as
efficient as possible. My work is serial in nature, a continuum of idea and form now
spanning a period of many years. Over the years I have labored toward simplification
and clarification, but I now realize that this simplification was necessary to understand
and discover particular essences of idea, and that using this experience I can achieve a
greater end in dealing with sculptures, each of which simultaneously work on many
levels of meaning.