Artist’s Statement

I forge steel and other metals in an attempt to explore and capture moments of human experience. I am interested in realistic form and the process necessary to work only with the transformation of mass. What is the required order and location of each heat and hammer blow to most efficiently create the final piece? What form and expression and feeling and beauty can be brought out of the metal, and out of the destructive nature of the steel and coal industries? I work closely with the materials I use, listening and giving way to the metal and the process in order to communicate with and affect the work, fostering a conversation. As part of this exchange, I integrate other materials and objects that resonate with, and have found their way to me, into my work. I allow the piece to change and shift from what I want it to be to what the material needs it to be and use that understanding to finalize my impact on the form. The natural and formal elements of forged metal and found object become artifacts and evidence of experience.

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