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Artist's Statement
They say that sculpture is something you trip over as you back away from the wall to view the painting. They say disparagingly that jewelry makers are just frustrated sculptors. I describe myself as an artist working in the medium of jewelry because I have always seen jewelry as a scale choice. It was a manageable scale and it referenced the body just as much as sculpture does. And while I don't personally subscribe to the concept of "sculpture to wear", the fact remains that every technique employed in jewelry making can also be utilized in sculpture making. The only difference is scale. My college training was in theatre, specifically technical theatre, set design and lighting, so the experience of working at a larger scale was something I encountered early on. So, at the very least I haven't been afraid of size. But I am afraid, and rightly so, of bulk! I decided a few years ago that the ideal approach to working at scale was to do it by not actually doing it myself. That is, I don't want to be heaving all of that heavy stuff around, storing it and then moving it again. I have enough stuff as it is. So my trick here is to build very exact models of the things I want done large, turn the models into drawings that can be scaled, and job out the work. Additionally the pieces are designed so that they break down to smaller components that can be easily crated and shipped. This show is about all of that. The Heart as an ongoing design obsession. Well, ok I give: it must be an obsession. But you have to admit that my hearts aren't of the sentimental Hallmark variety. They're, ah, well again, they're... techno-romantic. OK here's the basic Techno-Romantic rap. I believe that this thing we call civilization is a paper-thin veneer that covers our basic primal instincts as humans. We try to behave unlike that primitive alter ego and do a pretty good job of it for the most part. But just beneath the surface lurks the primitive human nature that is driven by instincts in the service of survival. And it doesn't take much it seems, as witnessed by current events, for the paper veneer to be rent and torn asunder revealing that primitive behavior. Techno-romanticism describes this condition and the tension between the "techno" component, or the veneer of civilization, especially the part that is delivered to us through our technology, and the "romantic" component which is the truly human, natural personality of man. The heart form has always been a part of our human history but until recently it was always a sexual symbol. It is only recently that it has become a romantic or love symbol. Just another way in which we tease that membrane of civilization out of our primal past and employ it as a way to separate our instinct from our evolutionary intentions. Whew! So I think about this a lot as you can tell and the personal philosophy reveals itself in my work with frequent regularity. And so it is with this body of work. Can you dig it? I describe myself as an artist working in the medium of jewelry. I could just as easily choose any other medium and have periodically delved into furniture, lighting, painting and sculpture. But jewelry truly is a lovely medium of expression and it also paid the bills as it fueled my potential to work in other areas. Quite frankly, they, whoever "they" are, have never successfully pigeonholed me in any one of these categories."
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"As I think back now over the past thirty years I realize that, since the earliest moments of my career as an artist, the primary conceptual theme in my work has always been about changes in scale. Yes, the heart figures large in my design vocabulary. Yes, of course, jewelry is the means by which I have promulgated my effect as an artist. But the guts of purpose and meaning have always been dictated by the concept of changes in scale.