Artist Statement

My studio is never lonely.  The heads I make are great company from the moment I imagine them, even before the clay begins to look like someone.  Then, when I put them out into the world, I feel like I do when I introduce friends to other friends: “Here’s someone I think you’ll like,” I feel like saying.  The every person aspect of the heads only increases this feeling for me – the heads become people you like: not someone you know, but a lot of people you know; feelings, states you recognize in yourself and in others.  I strive to empty them of all unnecessary emotional baggage, so the viewer experiences almost a Rorschach-like moment when first seeing them; and by spending more and more time with them, becomes more and more intimate with that first feeling.  First impressions are powerful forces in relationships of any length, and they are here, too.

Despite being influenced by some giants – Giacometti, Hans Josephson, Jean Dubuffet – I do not bring these masters to mind when I am actually working.  They are in my mind, somewhere, lurking, but they don’t speak loudly when I sculpt – they just watch over the process.  The heads I create are not referential, are not abstractions – they are actual beings.  Just like parents do not get to instill their children with the qualities of their heroes upon birth, neither do I get to bring anything more to bear on my sculptures than my own self, the day and the materials at hand.  Anything else is extraneous.