Artist Statement

I didn't set out to become a wood carver, as illustrated by the fact that I have a degree in Metal Conservation and an MFA in Metals. My first efforts at carving, during an undergrad sculpture seminar, amounted to pure frustration. Then about 10 years ago a friend gave me a chunk of perfectly seasoned boxwood and something just clicked; since then I've spent much of my time attacking small pieces of wood with even smaller pieces of metal. My figurative wooden jewelry and small-scale sculptures have appeared in galleries in the US and in England, as well as in Metalsmith's 2006 Exhibition in Print.

My work is concerned with narrative gestures and those stories quietly told by human bodies. I've reproduced a wide range of expressive physical features: a child's pout, a furrowed brow, a flash of cleavage, a clenched fist, a fading bruise. I carve by hand and use hardwoods and fruitwoods such as maple and cherry. I find these materials to be both convincingly fleshy and a pleasure to wear. Wood is smooth and slightly warm, and, like our bodies, can be bruised or marred by experience.

I travel whenever possible and strive to pick up new skills along the way. My techniques and aesthetic have been influenced by a variety of carving traditions, including European and American folk carvings, Japanese netsuke and Noh masks, and Maori bone pendants, as well as by carvers based nearer my home in the Pacific Northwest. I'm pleased to be able to share these techniques with students in my "Jewelry that Grows on Trees" workshops. I've taught at the Penland School of Craft, the 92nd Street Y, and Seattle's Pratt Fine Arts Center.

Résumé

Recent Exhibitions (*solo exhibition)

Teaching

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