Reflections

Reflections on a state of Zen.

In a world filled with madness, craziness, and noise I turn to my work to escape the chaos that seems to try and consume me. It is in working that I can shut off the world and be consumed in nothing but making. There is no underlying message or moral dilemma to ponder; my work is about the work. Each piece is made one at a time using traditional technics. I am the designer and the maker from start to finish. The rest is trial and error, patience and persistence. Each piece leads to the next one.

My goal is to take cues from nature and represent them, not exactly duplicating them in my work. The end result I want to be a piece for contemplation for the viewer. I open my work up for the viewer to recognize, to share something within it, but I want the viewer to bring to the work what the want to bring to it. I think of them much like scholar stone, something to be taken in and pondered and maybe even be a visual place of contemplation where the chaos of the world can be shut off for while.

The materials that I have chosen to work with are all “traditional” materials; glass, wood and metal. Each of the materials that I work with each has their own specific traits. It is my goals to master each one of these materials to own and control them to get them to do what I want then to do, when I want them to do it.

Glass is like no other material. Nothing else looks like glass, feels like glass or has the presents like glass. While appearing ridged glass is an amorphous solid. The molecules of glass have a disordered arraignment but it maintains enough cohesion to maintain some rigidity but is still fluid and always changing. It has often been suggested that I could use resins or epoxy to create the pieces. Which I could do but to get the pieces that I want and for them to have the feel that I want, they need to be done in glass.

Wood also has its own unique qualities. No two pieces of wood are the same. They can be cut to the same diminutions but having once been a living, growing tree no piece can be duplicated. Each piece will have differing growth ring, differing knots both that affect the color and patterns found in wood. Wood also has the ability to take on differing surfaces. It can be finally sanded and polished to an ultra smooth finish or it can be left with the rough edged from cutting. These options bring in elements that can only be achieved with wood.

Steel know for it strength and toughness starts to take on light when manipulated and can bring into mind questions of it durability. Rust on the surface can show signs that even steel strength can be compromised. And much like wood the surface of steel can be both polished smooth or textured.

I combine these materials I work towards the goal of presenting a piece that the viewer can get visually lost in for awhile, hopefully shutting off the world if only for a moment.