Sculptural forms

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Sculptural pieces have been an increasingly large part of my work for several years. The first piece was a wall sculpture completed in 1998 as part of the work I provided for the In Shape show at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. About eighteen months later, I had a show at Kirkwood Community College and constructed a wall piece for that event. That piece sold at the opening, and the earlier piece was sold at a gallery. I had a lot of gallery interest, so I started work on both freestanding and wall pieces.

The first ongoing series I call Skyscraper Dream: tall narrow pieces with ladder-like frameworks into which thin strips of various woods are woven. They have an architectural form which also has an organic feel. Other series have borrowed the basics of the interlocked or woven structure, but substituded wooden 'ribbons' or panels for the ladder frame. I also have done pieces which are based on large laminated curved pieces, which interlock without any contrasting straight lines. Opposite that, the Mondrian series is made up of interlocked panels and straight lines without any curved pieces. Working on smaller pieces gives me a chance to experiment with ideas that can be applied at a later date on the full-sized works. I also experiment with a lot of different materials, some of which I will use in the functional pieces as well. The wall pieces provide a three-dimensional alternative to the usual two-dimensional work that people usually expect to see on a gallery wall. A lot of this work has been comissioned to fit specific spaces, which has also fueled a lot of experimentation with new design concepts.