My art seeks to build a path to the most important place in the world – the heart. I am always looking to create something that bypasses the busy monkey mind with its endless concerns of the material world, to impulse that pure place where we just smile. I used to think that this was a silly and inferior use of art –perhaps not even art at all – but of course I was wrong. This is serious stuff. When that smile occurs and the heart swells with happiness, the rest of the world falls back into its rightful place.

I find the root of this path most often in imperfection. I come from a background of cartooning, where the smallest line or gesture unlocks emotion in the most magical way. I’m never really sure why something works and makes me happy, but I know for sure when it does. Each piece has a special flaw at the center of its creation. Like a good friend, we end up falling in love not despite these imperfections, but often because of them.

My work is created from the metal of our throw away culture. I collect the shells of old machines, telegraph wire, road signs and tractor parts that populate the landscape of Northern New Mexico where I live. I love the patinas on the junk I find, with their beautiful colors and rich sense of time and history. Each piece I create has a story to tell, though often times I’m not immediately let in on what that might be. I use tools from the past to create my work – the hammer and anvil, the drilled hole and the lowly rivet. These techniques from our bygone early industrial age feel right in honoring and redeeming the materials I discover and use.