Ever since my mother put a pencil in my hand and taught me to write my name, I have been drawing.  My mother is an artist and taught me to sketch.  At the age of sixteen I started making metal sculpture and instantly fell in love with its properties, look, feel, and permanence.  I attended the University of Idaho and knew I wanted to make metal sculpture, but my talents lay in my ability to draw.  I took as many drawing classes as I could, eventually sitting in on every life drawing class offered, up to six a day.  I continued to make metal sculptures and that was my major.  When it came time for my senior show, I had a nice body of metal sculpture but felt I needed to show my drawing as well.  I came up with two solutions.  The first was a kinetic sculpture which displayed my drawing and the second was a drawing made of metal.

     I have since refined my process but my technique remains the same.  I start by building a frame out of three-quarter inch angle iron, I have found this distance provides the best balance of light and shadow.  I weld a sheet of mild steel into the frame.  I produce a black and white drawing on that sheet of metal.  I then use a plasma cutter to remove everything except the drawing itself.  The end result is a new medium which elevates the drawing from a preparation for a painting to a finished piece of fine art.

     I draw to express my feelings.  My hope is this communication will influence people and thus change the world.  I think about a wide range of topics, but an overwhelming theme reoccurs in my work.  Our lack of control over the advancement of our species not only threatens our environment, but our quality of life.  I express this by juxtaposing the beauty of the human form with the obsessive clutter of everyday objects.  Even when my subject is completely abstracted the clutter remains.  My foremost inspiration is the beauty of nature, and my biggest fear is that it will be replaced by everything man made.