Sculpture

6"x20"x9" wood
As an Orca Orcinus pod swam by, mature males leading, surrounding females and young, ending with a troop on guard, it seemed an abstract yet was of domineering intelligent life.

92"x64"x28" wood

This shape was created entirely from cutoffs left over from one of my large woodworking projects. The top hoop is meant to suggest the helmet worn by Donatello's “David,” and the other pieces reflect “David's” hauteur.

39"x20"x9" Sculptures in the edge series are created using multiple laminations of wood that is first draped over a supporting casting form and then exposed to vacuum pressure to force it into a curved shape. This piece depicts my vision of particles pushing into a wave form, as the wave reshapes in pattern with those slices.

80"x40"x20"

A visual commentary on the first conversation in the proverbial garden, this piece includes a found wooden object.

38"x17"14" This piece depicts two worlds: the curving fluctuating mass of the physical world envelops only part of the symbolic city of undulating patterns and the intangible human environment of forms and ideas. This version of Edge has a tighter wrap, a sharper radius, than earlier forms.

103"x24"x9"

This tall sculpture began with the long, narrow triangular shapes, which were the cut-off tapers of some columns I had built for another artist's studio. The title is an homage to Duchamp's “Nude Descending A Staircase.”

24"x18"x14"

An adventure into the two directions our thoughts constantly deliver: the analytical application of the measuring mind and the readily posed for action silent side of our nervous system... Moderately thick veneer laminated construction pressed over a radius 24” half round cylindrical form. The outer eye of action: is the dark line of attention, or a raised sword. Again the semi-angular curves are taken from the PNW

120"x30"x4" The pattern was cut from another project, perfectly fitting a new idea of the freedom a bird has. Wood and brushed aluminum.

26"x12"x8" An early abstract, this piece presents the stem of the body in red, the emotional face in blue, and the 'thought man' who is the perpetual observer and talker, in yellow. The carving is influenced by shapes found in Pacific Northwest Native art. Found items demonstrate my enthusiasm for accidental contributions.

19"x8"x4" The original carving using a piece of myrtle wood bought from a roadside stand in Oregon. Myrtle wood is native only to Oregon and the Euro-Asian Mideast.

40” x 22” x 6” An early pressed wood lamination of quarter sawn white oak.

50” x 32” x 7” A commissioned piece influenced by the art of Pacific Northwest Native culture. The Killer Whale is much a part of their society.

20” x 20” x 22” Is the world outside or inside of us? This piece removes the demarcation between the two and suggests a return to non-chronological reality. Two sides of our perception are represented—the scientifically analytical and the philosophically metaphorical.

42” x 21” x 31” This piece portrays a moving boat with waves surging against it. The three sails are unfurling into the wind. The wheel represents a source of reserve energy, and the yellow insert within the wheel is a counter-weight that has the potential to balance the force of the tides coming toward the boat. This highlights the boat's struggle against the tides and suggests a physics where even more energy is returned from the effort, a useful metaphor for the dynamics of resistance.
Ideas like these ferment over time. A salvaged scrap of Brazilian Cherry became the base of the sculpture. The “live edge” of the base where the bark remains invites the image of water flowing, the movement accentuated by the brushed aluminum laminate. The sails are veneers from the crotch of a Florida cypress tree, harvested more than 100 years ago and carefully preserved. Two smaller pieces of cherry and mahogany are representative of the on-deck mechanics of a working sailboat.

A second view showing the other side of human nature, the analytical.

24” x 26” x 7” Homage to Matisse
A depiction of two abstract worlds involved in an attentive discussion. The standing figure has a brushed aluminum interior that is visible through several openings. Geometry forms the facial expression of the seated figure. After I finished the piece, I was leafing through a book of Impressionist art and found a work by Matisse with similar lines, also called “The Conversation.” It's likely that I saw that work in a college art history class and retained a faint memory of it.

34" x 9" x 77" wood
With my layman's interest in astrophysics, I'm aware of the many separate masses and energies moving—some in outer space, some inside our heads—as they meld into the whole we call “The Universe.” The scale of this piece relegates it to our human world.

38” x 24” x 31” wood, plastic

This pair of forms denotes an active and passive energy. In collision, they produce a result.

16” x 28” x 4” wood
Born of form, the plant emerges.

48” x 28” x 12” wood, plastic

The idea of a one-dimensional vibrating string inspired this piece. The string is not visible because—well, because you'd have to see it to believe it and physicists say that can't be done (or even that the strings exist). Nevertheless, the three central bands are the first results of the invisible string's vibration. The bands are suspended in twisted arcs that are offset by 28 degrees, so that they never cross each other. This gives rise to other modes, as geometry and chaos create all that we see around us, and words become sensible.

32" x 60" x 8" Wood
My wish to use wood as a flexible medium for abstract forms continues to be challenging.

An exploration and contemporary unfolding of the archetype of the Sphinx. The cultural rejuvenation of archetypes is where something new can be seen.

Motionless, or is that one's perception?