Artist Statement

After the Kepler space probe launched in 2009, I heard an astrophysicist say that humans could be "less cosmically modest" if the craft failed in its mission to find Earth-size planets that could support life. Let’s begin now. We all have a sacred responsibility to our extraordinary planet, just as we do to ourselves and to each other. Earth is unbelievably precious. Even though we are cosmically tiny, we are important in the universe. We all must remember this and act upon it in our daily lives.

I call my current sculptures, “celestial peculiarities” (oddities that a romantic period “golden-age” astronomer may have found and not known how to classify). They are components of a celestial panorama, which I began when NASA launched the Kepler space probe, imagining what exoplanets it might find. I’ve amassed over one thousand individual components, which will eventually be dispersed (I hope) similar to a Big Bang – all over our planet.

All of my environmental landscapes pertain to humans messing around with our habitat: deforestation, agro-businesses’ pesticides, dams, ozone depletion, albedo ratios. You’ll see these themes appear and reappear. The variety of dramatic changes occurring just in our oceans drove me to produce the albedo paintings (melting glaciers, C0₂ , coral, overfishing, plastic).

Wonder, joy, hope, curiosity, engagement is what we all need to feel as we travel through life. If anyone feels one of these when they gaze upon my work then I've succeeded.

A word about scale:

I never intended for any of my art to be seen only via a digital device. I assume it will always be seen in person. Scale and surface are essential. Please keep in mind when viewing these images that the artworks vary enormously in size. You’re seeing works that are 8 feet or 2 inches high right next to each other but they appear deceptively similar. This is particularly bizarre on the “Archive” page.