As an artist, continual inspiration comes from exploring local natural and built environments. By documenting buildings and trees, my sculpture and paintings are like three-dimensional portraits that exist as snapshots made during the arc of the subject’s temporal existence. When the tree blows over or the house is torn down, people who recognize them in my work remember them, allowing them in this way to live on.
I identify with my subjects and am entirely in their thrall while examining them. Fascination with textures and the decrepit majesty of abandoned buildings in Trenton led to much research and other inquiry about the social, economic and political history of this place. Making art that alludes to entropy and the effects of neglect over time has deepened my ability to nonverbally indicate the evidence of unseen forces. Currently, the ancient and wondrous Acipenseridae calls to me from the river when I paddle my kayak on the tidal waters, watching the endless variety of textures and reflections, wondering what lies beneath.
The Delaware River is home to a genetically distinct population of Atlantic sturgeon, one now seriously compromised by 19th century caviar harvesting and pollution from heavy industry along the river. Once at an aquarium near Portland, Oregon I met a fourteen-foot long sturgeon. This 150 million year old living fossil regarded me with the weight of its own history, armored with rows of bony shields. Hovering in the water at eye level behind the plate glass, it surveyed me with an ancient gaze. I knew then that I would make sculpture to document these creatures. Whether the Sturgeon Sculpture Series will be a testament to a close call with extinction, or a memorial for something not yet gone, remains to be seen.
The New Jersey State Museum has in its Natural History archive a taxidermy mount of a Delaware Bay sturgeon that is estimated by Curator David Parris to be 100 years old. Using this as a model, my sturgeon pattern can be digitally scaled up or down. Castings in iron, stainless steel, plaster and resin have been created at a ten-inch scale. Additional planned sculpture includes glass casting, and a cast iron public art piece for installation within sight of the river at eleven feet long.
The project has begun: Iron and stainless steel sturgeons are on view at the Grounds for Sculpture's "White Hot Expressions in Metal" show, up through mid-April 2012. Two were given permanent mounting provisions and have been installed on rocks in the river.
I identify with my subjects and am entirely in their thrall while examining them. Fascination with textures and the decrepit majesty of abandoned buildings in Trenton led to much research and other inquiry about the social, economic and political history of this place. Making art that alludes to entropy and the effects of neglect over time has deepened my ability to nonverbally indicate the evidence of unseen forces. Currently, the ancient and wondrous Acipenseridae calls to me from the river when I paddle my kayak on the tidal waters, watching the endless variety of textures and reflections, wondering what lies beneath.
The Delaware River is home to a genetically distinct population of Atlantic sturgeon, one now seriously compromised by 19th century caviar harvesting and pollution from heavy industry along the river. Once at an aquarium near Portland, Oregon I met a fourteen-foot long sturgeon. This 150 million year old living fossil regarded me with the weight of its own history, armored with rows of bony shields. Hovering in the water at eye level behind the plate glass, it surveyed me with an ancient gaze. I knew then that I would make sculpture to document these creatures. Whether the Sturgeon Sculpture Series will be a testament to a close call with extinction, or a memorial for something not yet gone, remains to be seen.
The New Jersey State Museum has in its Natural History archive a taxidermy mount of a Delaware Bay sturgeon that is estimated by Curator David Parris to be 100 years old. Using this as a model, my sturgeon pattern can be digitally scaled up or down. Castings in iron, stainless steel, plaster and resin have been created at a ten-inch scale. Additional planned sculpture includes glass casting, and a cast iron public art piece for installation within sight of the river at eleven feet long.
The project has begun: Iron and stainless steel sturgeons are on view at the Grounds for Sculpture's "White Hot Expressions in Metal" show, up through mid-April 2012. Two were given permanent mounting provisions and have been installed on rocks in the river.
Cast iron 10" Sturgeon permanently installed on a Delaware river rock
Low tide at Trenton, NJ & Morrisville, PA border
Stainless Steel @ 10 inches
Edition of 10
