My work:
I’m fascinated by the interaction of sculptural form with gravity and balance. Over the last several years, balance itself has become my sculptural medium, as much as wood or metal. I see it as a point of resolution between competing forces; it is the tension between motion and stillness, between order and chaos, between one’s thoughts and feelings.

In my work I draw on these tensions to evoke simultaneous harmony and uncertainty in the viewer, to capture a sense of the ephemeral moment between being grounded and achieving flight.

Each sculpture consists of intersecting parts that stand together as a whole, in perfect equilibrium, on a small foot. No part is extraneous or redundant, and no means of attachment is needed. The precariousness of this point of balance emphasizes its vulnerability to the forces around it, as well as its ability to withstand them.

Our bodies have an innate understanding of gravity and balance; every movement we make acknowledges this. Richard Serra’s twisting steel sculptures connect with that understanding by dwarfing us with their imposing mass, while Alexander Calder’s mobiles do this through lightness and whimsy. My work exists at the intersection of these two approaches, using the interplay between weight and weightlessness to create forms with a sense of movement and life, gesture within a static form. The architect Santiago Calatrava once wrote, “Gesture is the most elemental, personal translation of our emotion and our desire.”

My process:
The shapes in my sculptures come from the world around me. I begin each by sketching on paper, gradually refining it. The drawn quality persists in the finished piece, a sense of its two-dimensional roots. By the time that I am ready to fabricate the final work, the form’s original inspiration has become irrelevant to me, and may or may not be recognizable.

The balance within each work comes entirely from intuition as I draw the form, as opposed to trial-and-error or engineering of any sort. Each sculpture must balance on its own — this is crucial to me.