The Immoral Forest

The Immoral Forest investigates the previous life of wood and revives cast off elements in ways that question relationships between man and nature. Society’s corrupted pieces and dishonest parts are reformed. The objects created with abandoned elements are misguided growth; photosynthesis gone wrong. Tree trunks, branches, and shop scraps are held together, again and again by traditional wood working techniques and welded metal. The existence of the recognizable and unfamiliar properties of wood creates a reemergence of life where life had been cancelled. Where nature once created growth, my art creates objects and space from discarded leftovers.

The decadence of trees (the color, structure, grain and growth pattern of their life) is reinterpreted, distorted, converged and reconnected with metal scaffolds, lamination and joinery to visually reverse and abstract death into life, solids into voids. Metal and wood do battle with each other while creating a surreal harmony. The metal constructions support and pierce the wood, offering an uneasy but essential coexistence.

The resulting sculptures communicate and interact with the viewer. Sometimes, the focus becomes the grain of a single piece of wood. The mind is enthralled by the exposed beauty of death. Often, the wood disappears and the negative space becomes the subject; the void becomes the object. The eye perceives the empty spaces before it sees the wood that creates them. The mind questions why it is uncomfortable, and at the same time, appealing to see what is left of a forest.

I work to understand the nature of the found wood and reassemble it into an afterlife. Though the tree’s discarded scraps are no longer able to continue their process of growth through photosynthesis, they are able to again achieve form and structure. My art communicates by giving trees a second life.

Drawing Meditation

Drawing as introspective meditation allows me to ponder the subject I am delineating. Focusing on a piece over time, I develop a more complete understanding of the image. Originally I drew my architecture and furniture designs as a means of further defining their forms. After marriage and parenthood, the themes have become explorations of relationships and history; of hopes and fears. I spend weeks to months exploring the recesses of my emotions.

The drawings begin at a small scale, achieving increasingly larger unifying orders of datums to create a composition. My technique fills small squares with parallel pencil lines. Drawing in this manner, with very sharp pencils, over a long period of time, forces me to become more aware of the communication I want to achieve. My process enables me to design, see and alter the project as it evolves. The sensation is similar to closing ones eyes to hear more sounds.

When you view something from a micro to a macro scale, a more complete understanding of the image is possible then by simply viewing it from a distance. My drawings are meant to be viewed from the detail level of the lead work; then as grouping of small objects; then as large composition. I want the viewer to look closely and understand and think about the process and technique that created the art, as well as the emotions and the image itself.