Transmutations
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Date
2001
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture
Abstract
Growing up in the rural west charged my life with a rich sense of discovery and creative adventure. As a child I would gather fossils, driftwood and animal bones and arrange them into sculptures which I then painted. I was imposing my own order on the natural world and made it part of my personal vision. My pastime of collecting from Nature and rearranging found materials into these early sculptures was a formative experience leading to the imagery apparent in my current body of work. As an artist, I am interested in making sculpture that depicts the evolution of an imaginary species. Evolution, metamorphosis, movement and growth are my main inspirations. To transmute means to change from one form, species, condition, nature or substance into another. Transmutation is expressed by the fusion of unique pieces of driftwood that have animated qualities and combined with natural shapes I have manipulated to create a dynamic organism. The handmade forms are distinguished with general animal and human qualities, such as legs, arms, heads and fingers. The action of growth is exhibited by a rhythm of forms that dissolve and merge, creating the illusion of a world in motion.