PORTFOLIO

Growing up close to the forest on a street named Forest Drive spending vast amounts of time in trees listening to wind and birds, language seemed a prison.

 

Making with blocks of wood, tinfoil, paper and tape.

 

When I was 14 I received the first scholarship for art from the local museum.  Spending Saturday afternoon making copies of the Sistine Chapel, Degas dancers, and a book of anatomy by Leonardo.

 

In a flight from the Midwest, I joined the navy.  While docked in San Diego, I attended a meditation class at a local head shop.

 

Following breath in – out, in – out, a life changing experience.

 

Zen monastery to Art School – I graduated from San Francisco Art Institute in 1984.

 

Amid the roar of Indian and Tibetan masters coming to sow seeds of awakening to the West, I made work, made families, and drank.

 

In 2005, after 3 near death experiences, I entered rehab back in the Midwest.  Smelling winter air and cigarettes, AA meetings and recovery exercise, things started to make sense again.  Going to upper state New York to cook at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, then entered 3-year retreat in 2008.  Sitting in a box.  After 3 years in retreat, 2 of which were in silence, it was time to start making stuff again.

 

Our shared dilemma as humans is to uncover our magnitude, to redirect our attention from the hypnotic interest in trinkets of outer projection to the natural, timeless profound within.

 

The work reflects this dialogue.