Sculpture Gallery
I’m a musician and sculptor based in Portland, Oregon. For most of my life, I’ve had to balance my passions between making music and creating sculpture. When I'm not on tour playing music in theaters and folk clubs, I can be found in my sculpture studio with my hands in wet clay digging deep.
The number one inspiration for my art is the natural world. I thrive on exploring ways to evoke emotion using form and texture. My work is driven by the tension between survival and surrender, something we all balance as part of this wildly changing planet. I begin with imagining a creature differently in order to capture the duality of what is fierce and fragile in the form.
My physical process starts with either a lump of clay or a bamboo lattice-work form that I coat with slip and fire in the kiln. I occasionally use traditional glazes, but most of my pieces are surfaced with a tough, resin and plaster-based, non-fired coating that is combined with metal powders. The finish cures and oxidizes to provide an appearance of aged bronze or distressed iron. This is an intuitive process that taps into the improvisation and exploration I’ve developed as a musician. I feel my willingness to take chances has led to new forms and techniques that are not easily recognized as ceramic, but often mistaken as metalwork or wood carvings. When it comes to both art and music, I’ve always believed that taking risks is a conduit beyond the obvious - to express something with deeper resonance and profound honesty.
