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Artist's Statement


Concerning my drawings

Drawing was my first, and continues to be my most enduring, form of artistic expression. I have always loved its immediacy, and its capacity to surprise me. My process is to begin with a loose theme or direction, and let my hand do the thinking from there. For me, drawing is a way of thinking about things beyond habitual cognition – conscious or subconscious. In drawing, conscious and subconscious both become spectators, making only the occasional comment about what my hand is creating. Only after the hand has finished do I stand back to really see what it has done. I may then make minor adjustments, but most drawings are completed in one session. While my drawings are my musings on various subjects, they are seldom autobiographical. As they emanate from and speak most directly to the level of consciousness that created them, I am reluctant to analyze or interpret them. I don't think my interpretation would necessarily be any better then anyone else's. I thrive on the uncertainty of not knowing what might emerge. Often, my favourite drawings are those that surprise me the most – those I find mysterious or funny.


Concerning my sculptures

As a child, my favourite toys were the ones I made myself, out of parts of broken or dismantled (by me) mass-produced toys. My homemade toys gave my imagination much more room to roam than the manufactured toys I frequently found boring. My assemblages are still very much a form of play, although perhaps with a more "grownup" sensibility. Playing at what? I believe the answer lies in the question that guides the creation of all of my sculptures: “Does it hold stories?" I very much see my sculptures as vessels for stories. They're not illustrations of any particular story, although their titles often refer to one story I’ve used to test their soundness. Sound, but ultimately indeterminate; I hope people fill them with them with the stories their imaginations favour, and that these various stories give the vessels a rich patina. That said, as my art ultimately concerns the creation of those vessels, it is also fine to leave them empty.