My personal studio work ranges broadly in its use of materials and technique, but I believe it is held together with a sense of reclaiming objects from our past which once had a specific use, but now are more like curiosities. An old industrial thermometer, drawings from a 1950s book about rocketry, a beat-up tool box, an antique bike light, the front grill of a Westinghouse oven…. I enjoy juxtaposing objects, patterns, and materials, and hoping for a surprising result. The majority of my work can hang like a painting, but often has an element of sculpture built out from the surface.

Recently, I have worked more in the vein of a sculptural assemblage, aiming to design and build objects which capture the viewer's attention quickly and also invite interaction. Most of my work is tactile and made for a person to touch or control. I collect objects of interest, from the side of the road, garage sales, thrift stores, etc. I never know what I am looking for, but I try to take a utilitarian object and give it a new life. One of my collectors, an old friend, remarked about “Let Me Check My Schedule” (2021) that everything in the sculpture is what it was originally meant to be. The pencil sharpener is still a sharpener, the pencils are still pencils, and the wood base still acts as a part of a tree. As I repurpose and rearrange items from the manufactured world, I try to maintain this ideal—that my work can take the recognizable and give it a new place, without removing its original function.

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