In wood, I represent human and animal figures within abstracted environment.

Right now, in the 21st century, some of us are looking at nature and at human affairs with ideas that are potent and humane.

It is no longer unusual to visualize an environment as an active interrelated system where the least can change the whole. I want art that reflects this understanding. I choose to carve sculpture from wood; the substance of wood contains, resonates with, the processes of nature and the wild complexity of the natural world.

And, we look at ourselves. It is no longer unusual to see person, people, human experience as active interrelated flow, where the smallest part is potentially active and vital. Here again, the least is potent, the whole is interrelated. Of course we share the nature of natural systems.

I proceed within a collaboration of the wood and the idea. Whether each blademark should be retained, I approach as an artist's decision. Where I sand and smooth, I seek to reveal the process of growth of the wood within the shape of the idea.

In a previous century, when I was a child, with a child's intolerance and self-absorption, I saw the sculpture...you know the one. A block of concrete. The absolutely-reduced simplicity probably did many things. To me, it snubbed details. I knew that I was a detail. Now, as an adult artist, I would say that human-including and nature-including artwork is also necessary.

I believe in wood as a medium for the 21st century. Its grain, complexity and flow resonate with natural and human systems. Wood responds to the density I look for in my work.

Woodcarving..I like to claim that I cast the stuff in molten wood.