ARTIST STATEMENT

Woodturning is a field where the wood used can speak for itself, or the artist can use the wood vessel as a canvas.  Wood has colors and grain patterns that can be used immediately and need no augmentation, or colors can be added to a finished vessel.  After a tree has been cut for a time, natural forces can act on the wood to produce new patterns within the grain.  Growths on the trees called burls have some of the most beautiful grain patterns.  The woodturner gets to discover all of the surprises that the tree has closed up inside and then decide how best to display this gift of nature.

I have been a woodturner since 1994.  I have been influenced by studies of early Native Americans and the vessels that they produced.  I also am interested in combining metals with wood pieces, both as structural members and as symbiotic pairings.

I am a member of the Orange County Artists Guild, the Woodturners Guild of North Carolina, the American Association of Woodturners, and the National Wood Carvers Association.