Artist Statement

The structure of the work I have been making in recent years has been influenced by literature, film, and architecture. With the use of electric motors, audio chips, slide projectors, video cameras and projectors, and traditional sculptural materials I have attempted to address such diverse subjects as the self-portrait, landscape painting, and gender and age transformation. The major influences for these works are literary. In addition to the literary structure, I have included criticism of the work within the body of the work as has Vladimir Nabokov, Federico Fellini, and Philip Roth. I see the work as a symbiotic relationship of diverse elements. Trying to harness the diverse content and materials in these sculptures is like trying to organize debris at a picnic on a windy day.

I began life intellectually at the age of 21, involved with Zen and existentialism and it wasn’t until I was confronted by a painting at some museum…struck dumb…mind gone empty – confronted by the power of its presence did I realize the idea I had about art making needed to be re-examined. The notion that great art stimulates thought quite misses the mark. This realization is consistent with Samuel Beckett’s statement, “The role of the art object is to render silence” and is reinforced by Stanley Kubrick when he states “The truth of the thing is the feel of it, not the think of it”.