SLATE RELIEF CARVINGS
Frequently, the starting point of my work is a compulsion to map and release the tensions and layers of my emotional world. My affinity for the forms of nature is the visual language I use to access these emotional narratives.
Most of my slate bas-relief carvings are translations first conceived in large charcoal drawings. My aim in the drawing process is simply to uncover and discover, to make marks that visually move me and respond to them with as much openness and intuition that I can muster. Rhythms and tensions are acute to me. Honing into a story line or title can also serve to tighten, strengthen, and finalize the work.
All of my slate carvings are created by hand with chisels and mallets. The rhythms from my handwork play a vital role in directing me to the quality of my forms and shapes. I especially love the challenge of carving slate, a stone that begs to be split and threatens to separate at every blow of my mallet. Slate demands my attention and the lines it can hold for me is worthy of this extra effort.
LETTERING
This work fills my need to engage with stone directly. I love to play with the abstract quality of letter forms and the texture of written words.
I am often drawn to the individual character of stone fragments. Like the playful way we look for imaginative stories in puffy clouds that drift above, I play this visual game with found stones. Their outlined shape, texture and color serve as my palette for inspiration for the fragments of language and poetry that is dwelling in me. I locate these stones in nearby Vermont quarries and river beds, stone yards and backyards.
I am also, at heart, a lover of ancient working methods. I have been carving reliefs in stone with chisels and mallets for the past decade, in part, because of my desire to connect to this primitive form of human expression.
So, too, with my attraction to hand carved lettering. The sensitivity of designing and cutting letters directly on stone has long persisted. The tradition of Roman “v-cut” lettering began over 2,000 years ago, evidence from the inscription on the Trajan column in Rome. It feeds my studio life to make visible this ancient Roman practice.
Frequently, the starting point of my work is a compulsion to map and release the tensions and layers of my emotional world. My affinity for the forms of nature is the visual language I use to access these emotional narratives.
Most of my slate bas-relief carvings are translations first conceived in large charcoal drawings. My aim in the drawing process is simply to uncover and discover, to make marks that visually move me and respond to them with as much openness and intuition that I can muster. Rhythms and tensions are acute to me. Honing into a story line or title can also serve to tighten, strengthen, and finalize the work.
All of my slate carvings are created by hand with chisels and mallets. The rhythms from my handwork play a vital role in directing me to the quality of my forms and shapes. I especially love the challenge of carving slate, a stone that begs to be split and threatens to separate at every blow of my mallet. Slate demands my attention and the lines it can hold for me is worthy of this extra effort.
LETTERING
This work fills my need to engage with stone directly. I love to play with the abstract quality of letter forms and the texture of written words.
I am often drawn to the individual character of stone fragments. Like the playful way we look for imaginative stories in puffy clouds that drift above, I play this visual game with found stones. Their outlined shape, texture and color serve as my palette for inspiration for the fragments of language and poetry that is dwelling in me. I locate these stones in nearby Vermont quarries and river beds, stone yards and backyards.
I am also, at heart, a lover of ancient working methods. I have been carving reliefs in stone with chisels and mallets for the past decade, in part, because of my desire to connect to this primitive form of human expression.
So, too, with my attraction to hand carved lettering. The sensitivity of designing and cutting letters directly on stone has long persisted. The tradition of Roman “v-cut” lettering began over 2,000 years ago, evidence from the inscription on the Trajan column in Rome. It feeds my studio life to make visible this ancient Roman practice.
