I am a creative, I was an artist but discovered that leaves me with a boundries. Being a creative is the way I live life, possibilites are everywhere
As director if IT at Swarovski Lighting and prior it's acquisition at Schonbek, I am the chief architect and designer of all our applications. I lead an incredibly talented team of developers who are way more talented than I am but I still enjoy writing code and developing applications. As one of the few remaining manufacturing environments where we design and adapt the applications match the business, it is a joy to make software work for us and not the other way around. It is a major creative outlet allowing me to make and create on a daily basis. I have been at this a long time and can't see stopping any time soon, except that I want to do so many other creative things.
Sculpture - Sculpture - I discovered I was a sculptor over 30 years ago with an introduction to wildlife carving, I found it easy to visualize the end result before I ever begin the process. I can see the sculpture in the stone or wood and just have to work out how and what I need to do to get it out. Learning techniques and processes for doing this is taking a lifetime. After years of seeing the finished piece in my mind, I added assembling sculptures from found and raw materials.
Furniture is unique form of sculpture, where we except people interact with it by sitting or put things in it and on it. Making furniture to me is an extension of sculpture wanting to present an idea or show off beautiful materials. Naturally I gravitated to tables since I always need a place to put sculptures.
Crafts - that is not something associated very often with fine artists but since I am a creative it fits in just fine. To me this is still a sculpture endeavor but with a more whimsical and folksy approach. I see others craft works and get inspired, I find that I get snippets and inspiration from the smallest details and if take the ideas back to my work bench and I make this change or that addition it could look really unique. Sometimes it is the challenge of making something similar to learn a new technique that gets me started.
I work in my home shop and studio for all my sculptural pursuits. Key is reference materials, first it was books and magazines and field photography with film then it was the digital camera and the internet. Now I find it's my cell phone, digital camera, tablet as well as my trusty paper standbys. I am hooked on Pinterest as a great way to find and save images that are an inspiration of trigger a concept. It's never the whole image but it's a detail that grabs my attention.
I'm deep into being a creative, love to listen to podcasts of other artists. Looking forward to chasing full time sculptural pursuits once I get to the end of my software creative cycle.
The bio picture that every artist has to have, static and posed, but is not who we realy are.
This is Niko, a British Lab, well to be clear my wifes dog that she lets me play with.
Working on a stone Barn Owl. With this piece i discovered color variations in the stone and as I was working on it it continued to follow the sholder and wings.
The Owl nearing completeion, hours of sanding and polishing reveal the beauty of the stone.
I do accept commissions and you can see my work in select galleries.
