Artist's Statement
“My decision to pursue sculpture as my life’s work came at a time in 1968 when I was following an academic career and starting my graduate work in philosophy, comparative religion and literature at the University of Vermont. I was introduced to ceramic art and immediately took to the idea that you could create something out of a pile of mud. It was direct, energetic and seemed to call on something in me that had previously gone ignored. And so I began to create sculpture out of clay.
“As I matured in the pursuit of sculpting in clay, my ideas, forms and shapes grew and changed. I came to realize that it would be difficult to achieve some forms in the medium of clay and impossible to achieve certain sculptural ideas through ceramics alone. So I moved away from clay and toward direct carving in wood and stone.
“Since those early years, I have taught myself, and been schooled in, various methods to state my artistic vision. I tend to work in series – that is, producing a number of pieces in the same vein and medium in an attempt to realize and expand upon a given idea or inspiration.
“My sculpture tends to be large-scale, curvilinear, and abstract because of the way I see line defining itself in space.
“My primary concern as an artist has always been freedom – freedom from the constraints of pre-conceived artistic ideals and the freedom to pursue one’s aesthetic vision to its conclusion. In that sense, the creation of sculpture becomes a statement of personal freedom that goes well beyond the object one creates.”