As you view this body of work some questions may come to mind. Why make something like this? What is it? Is it art?

        In an attempt to answer these and other questions I would like you to do something. As you approach these works be mindful of all that you bring with you; your entire life’s experiences. While viewing the work make note of your feelings, reactions, thoughts and emotions without making any judgments. Tour these pages and return a second and perhaps a third time.                                                                                                      

        You may begin to find some interesting things beginning to happen within. You may find yourself immediately taken with the piece. Excitement, joy, confusion, disgust, perhaps an unidentified sense of familiarity may persist – something you can almost grasp but cannot. Is this what is happening inside of you? Congratulations!! You have just discovered one of the fundamental functions of art. What about the answers to the other questions??? Keep looking and you have begun a trip on the road to self discovery!!!

        For further clarification or mystification please read on.

        And yet more questions. Why am I compelled to do this? Why is my work like it is?

        IN THE BEGINNING. . . By the pressure of a Great Thought; there started an event. In time this event would be called creation. In a flash existence came to be, expanding outward in a chaotic distension of debris. Slowly, the chaos coalesced into the matter that would compose the cosmos. The form this condensation took was of the great galactic systems. In the corner of one of those systems a hot molten mass spun furiously through the void of space, giving it shape and form.

        In the eons that followed great forces acted and interacted upon this molten mass shaping and reshaping what we now call earth. Cooling, it stratified forming layers of different compositions, one of which became the crust. In violent spasms between the atmosphere and the earth itself its surface metamorphosed in a continuous series of seismic upheavals that smashed crustal plate against crustal plate; creating mountain systems which would be eroded and dissolved away by the constant corrosive action of rain, wind, glacial and organic activity. This turbulent birth and development created a substance which in time would be considered possibly one of the most important substances ever created. The substance? CLAY! For the One who Thought that Great Thought, blew into it Creating life. That life in turn blew into it with their intellects, emotions and creativity, shaping the clay with skilled hands, giving it form – the form of pottery and sculpture.

        It is this act, the act of creating which compels me to create art, specifically ceramic art. Artists are not alone in the act. We all create in our own unique and personal ways. The artists soul resonates with a vibration that that radiates outward striking the souls of others; creating ripples of pleasure, excitement, contemplation etc. . .

        The means by which these creations manifest them selves are the art objects. These objects that you see here before you may give some idea of how I see the world – a part of the world called shape and form.

        My Ideas of shape and form come from the basic forms of pottery as I was initially trained by a potter; and from the shapes and forms that are in my world. After a time the basic shapes of pottery metamorphosed from utilitarian function. Lids, handles and feet became structural and sculptural aspects of a piece. The traditional forms of pottery; bowls, cylinders and various jar and vase forms combined with the basic geometric forms to become the works that describe my sculptural vision.

        Whether the work is as simple as a small vase or as intriguing as a piece of sculpture its very existence changes life. When "placed" it redefines and recreates space or the space in which it occupies. A space once devoid of interest and life is now more exciting, new, refreshing and interesting. The viewers/owners life is also changed beyond the haughty philosophical reasons explored above. It has changed on the very ordinary and mundane – cause now you have something else to dust!

        The cycle is now complete – working with dirt to working with dirt. Balance is achieved as we are reminded of our own creation – of our humble beginnings.