The Growth of Form

Abstract

My sculptures are influenced by the forms and forces of nature. Certain natural forms captivate me: seed pods, bursting with potential life energy; branches and vines that reach and grasp in anthropomorphic ways; textures that mirror both the processes of growth and decay. As a child, I was always drawn to the natural world around me. I would range through the dense New England woods, marshes and ponds where I made discoveries which may have seemed commonplace to others but were fascinating to me. I was a child that had an eye for detail and the tiny things that made nature amazing did not escape my gaze. Nature can be likened to a web and it cannot be represented by something as simple as a single object; there is no end result, the cycle is in constant motion. The technical aspects of my work, the processes employed, allow me to mirror nature. This method of creation contains technical, time consuming, spontaneous and responsive processes which allows the work to grow and evolve. These two different ways of working are as important as the artwork itself. Though my individual sculptures may appear to be an `end result', they are simply a snapshot into the cycle of nature as I interpret it. They evoke questions as to where they came from and where they are going to. The forms I create are not meant to literally represent specific organisms, but instead contain the essence of many different organisms, combined to represent the course of nature. The sculptures embody my view of nature and they take on new forms in the same way that nature evolves.