This piece is a continuation of my series of works which are based on our relationship with nature, and the collective hubris that drives us to believe that we can fully wrestle it to our will. I found inspiration in the ancient myth of the monstrous sea serpent, Leviathan, who represents the embodiment of chaos that threates to envelope the material world.
The viewer is placed in the position of a lone soul adrift in the swirling maelstrom of the ocean. Looking up in desperation for a break in the waves, they find not a life-line to safety, but the menacing tentacle of an unknowable creature from the dark depths below.
Bittersweet, Honeysuckle and Black Elder vines, Cotton twine
90” x 192” x 5”
An ongoing series that explores man’s ill-fated and hubristic attempt to impose his will on nature.
These assemblages are installed in a formal grid pattern to amplify the tension in the juxtaposition of order versus the freeform .
Each panel is 30” x 24.” Total assemblage size 63” x 78”
Wild Wisteria, Bittersweet, Honeysuckle vines, Sagebrush, Bamboo and Cotton twine
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Honeysuckler vines, twine and acrylic paint assemblage
43” Diameter X 6”
Bittersweet, Honeysuckle and Black Elder vines, twine
77 x 77” x 5”
Shown closed/upright in studio
Site specific work created for the 2024 outdoor “Sculpture on the Trail” exhibition at the Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Brookhaven, New York.
84” long x 28” wide x 23” high
Wild Wisteria, Bittersweet and Honeysuckle vines and twine on a Wild Wisteria and black acrylic painted plinth
Artist Statement
What you see before you is my most personal work to date.
I say this because one day it will actually contain my person.
I don’t consider this a dark thought – quite the opposite.
As I bent the vines and tied the knots, trying to create something of beauty and purpose, feelings flooded back of a childhood memory:
lying in the cool grass on a summer night, looking up at the stars, wrapped in the embrace of nature as the everyday world fell away.
So while the sculpture does represent my ultimate expression of entropy (the degradation of all matter into chaos and inertia), a core tenet of my work, I hope it also suggests a peaceful acceptance of the natural phases and cyclical dynamics of life.
And it may bring to mind other symbolic vessels of transformation: Norse burial ships transporting fallen heroes to Valhalla; the bramble-bower of Sleeping Beauty and her “happily ever after;”
and the hibernation pods of 2001: A Space Odyssey, where our species catapults into a quantum shift in consciousness.
All that being said, I hope this vessel will gather dust in my studio
Bittersweet, Box Elder, Honeysuckle vines, wooden picket fencing, twine, acrylic paint
100” x 60” X 60” (approx.)
Site specific work, shown in studio, created for the 2023 outdoor “Sculpture on the Trail” exhibition at the Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Brookhaven, New York.
Shown here in studio
Bittersweet, Box Elder, Honeysuckle vines, wooden picket fencing, twine, acrylic paint
100” x 60” X 60” (approx.)
Site specific work created for the 2023 outdoor “Sculpture on the Trail” exhibition at the Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Brookhaven, New York.
48” x 84” x 5”
Wild Wisteria, Bittersweet, Honeysuckle vines, twine and yarn
Private collection
48” x 84” x 5”
Wild Wisteria, Bittersweet, Honeysuckle vines, twine and yarn
Private Collection
Installation View
54” x 89” x 6”
Wild Wisteria, Bittersweet and Honeysuckle vines, twine, and acrylic paint
Bittersweet, Honeysuckle and Black Elder vines, twine
Triptych: three panels, each 48” x 48” approx.
Private collection
40” in diameter
Sagebrush, Bittersweet vines, Feathers, twine and acrylic paint
Private collection
50” x 57” x 5”
Wild Wisteria, Bittersweet, Honeysuckle vines, twine and yarn
Private collection
50” x 57” x 5”
Wild Wisteria, Bittersweet, Honeysuckle vines, twine and yarn
Private Collection
Installation View
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines and twine assemblage
100” x 73” x 2.5”
Private Collection
Installation View
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines, acrylic paint and twine assemblage
48” x 76” x 4”
Private Collection
Installation View
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Honeysuckle vines assemblage
156” x 60” x 5”
Private Collection
Bittersweet, Black Elder & Virginia Creeper vines, acrylic paint and twine assemblage
60” x 55” x 5”
Private Collection
Bittersweet, Black Elder & Virginia Creeper vines with Bamboo Grass yarn assemblage
68” x 42”
Private collection
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines and twine assemblage
84” diameter x 2.5”
Private Collection
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines and twine assemblage
84” diameter
Private Collection
Site specific work created for the 2022 outdoor “Sculpture on the Trail” exhibition at the Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Brookhaven, New York.
Bittersweet, Black Elder & Honeysuckle vines and twine assemblage
90” x 42”
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines assemblage
72” x 48” x 2.5’
Private Collection
Installation View
30” x 24”
Palm bark and acrylic paint
Private collection
Newsprint, Pine needles, sticks and acrylic paint on plywood
48” x 48”
Private Collection
Newsprint, dried leaves and acrylic paint collage
47” x 34”
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines and twine assemblage
67” x 48” x 2.5”
Private Collection
Installation View
Sticks and acrylic paint on wooden panel
36” x 36”
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines, twine and acrylic paint assemblage
86” 45” (at base) diameter
Private Collection
Newsprint, sticks and acrylic paint on canvas
48” x 60”
Private Collection
Newsprint, graphite and acrylic paint collage
59” x 45”
Private Collection
Sticks, twine and acrylic paint assemblage
64” x 46”
Private Collection
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines, twine and acrylic paint assemblage
64” x 36” x 2.5”
Private Collection
Torn newsprint, graphite and acrylic paint collage
43” x 27”
Private Collection
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines, twine and acrylic paint assemblage
45” diameter x 3”
Private Collection
Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines, twine and acrylic paint assemblage
78” x 62” x 2”
Newsprint, sticks and acrylic paint on canvas
36” x 24”
Private collection
Sticks, feathers, sand and acrylic paint on canvas
18” x 18”
Private collection
Paper ephemera collage on canvas
24” x 12”
Sticks, feathers, sand and acrylic paint on canvas
60” X 48”
Private Collection
Craft paper, graphite and acrylic paint collage
50” x 35”
Private collection
Sticks, corrugated cardboard and acrylic paint on canvas
29” x 21”
Sticks, corrugated cardboard and acrylic paint on canvas
29” x 21”
Private collection
Paper, twine and acrylic paint on corrugated cardboard
12” diameter
Sticks and acrylic paint on corrugated cardboard
12” diameter
Dried leaves, graphite and acrylic paint on wooden panel
24” x 18”
Newsprint, vines and acrylic paint on canvas
48” x 24”
Feathers, sand and acrylic paint on canvas
36” x 36”
Torn paper, sticks and paint on wooden panel
11.75” x 8.25”
Private Collection
Twine, sand and acrylic paint on canvas
27” X 21”
Private Collection
Torn paper, graphite and paint collage
35” x 20”
Private Collection
Sticks, bark, dried leaves and acrylic paint on canvas
29” x 21”
Torn newsprint and magazine paper collage on canvas
36” x 36”
Private Collection
Bamboo, Bittersweet, Box Elder & Virginia Creeper vines, twine and acrylic paint assemblage
64” x 24” X 2.5”
Private Collection
Torn paper and paint on a wooden panel
12” x 9”
Private Collection
Torn paper, graphite and acrylic paint on canvas
12” x 12”
Private Collection
Torn paper, gauze and acrylic paint on cardboard
11” x 8.5”
Private Collection
Sticks and acrylic paint on a wooden frame
24” x 24” x 2”
Private Collection
