To be Soft and Bold is an Artful way to live.
-
Featured in Maine Magazine
As a kid, being in my dad’s wood shop filled me
with such curiosity. I loved the smell of sawdust
and was fascinated with all the different tools.
In high school I took a shop class where we
made small wooden toys.
In my 20's I took a welding class. The teacher determined immediately I wasn't in the class to become a welder. He recommended I go take the blacksmith class, and that was it...I was hooked.
The relationship between the steel, the fire and the human with the hammer is the divine 3. Everything is transformed on a molecular level. To be able to heat and manipulate steel, changing the shape, never fails to fascinate me.
My desire to work with steel developed as I realized that soft isn't always the way to walk. Own a hammer and know how to use it.
Having worked with clay for years before welding and blacksmithing, the concept of material manipulation was key to my interest that continues today with almost any material.
I've worked with different mediums over the years. These include reclaimed wood and found objects, pastels, watercolors, acrylic, and clay- hand building technique being favorite. Copper is my most current steady medium. I find it to be alive with possibility, warm and energetic.
Whether it's a garden I'm transforming or a piece of metal, I am in a relationship or dance with the material and feel a freedom of expression that comes from somewhere outside of myself.
Heart, Head and Hands-the divine 3- again
Artists I've worked with:
-David Lisch- N.A. master Damascus knife maker
-Shannon Buckner- Seattle based blacksmith
-David Tuthill- Seattle based blacksmith
-Dana Sanderson- Mississippi Artist Master potter, Flint Knapper and archaeologist
-Scott Shattuck- blacksmith and teacher
Artists who I've followed over the years and who gave shape and inspiration to my work:
-Tasha Tudor
-Louise Bourgeois
-Butch Anthony
-Louise Brookes
-Georgia O'Keefe
-Alexander Calder
-Andrew Goldsworthy
