Why am I a sculptor?

In 1994 I took a trip to Italy to tour ancient sites for their historic, religious and artistic importance. I didn’t know that I would find my passion there as well. I have always been artistic but had only toyed with the idea of doing it as a career. The trip took away any doubt as to what I should do with life and set me on the path of an artist, for better or worse.

The moment came to me while in Rome visiting the Vatican. I saw amazing architecture, wealth and beauty. I walked in the very halls of the “house of God” and felt myself become smaller and smaller and more in awe with every step. Surrounded by this splendor I grew suddenly confused, as if something were missing. I realized that despite what I wanted to feel and what I wanted to see, I did not feel the peace or divine majesty the Vatican was supposed to represent, not like I felt I should have. This saddened me greatly, so I allowed myself to be swept away with the tour group. It was then that everything changed.

I came around a large marble column and saw, behind red velvet rope, the Pièta by Michelangelo. I had seen it in books, but never up close. Like a thunderclap I felt as though I had been thrown through time and linked to the passion, dedication, love and genius of its creator. I saw immortality in the forever young face of the Virgin Mary. I felt grace, sublime sadness and divine hope in the prone yet weightless form of Jesus. In the stone I saw a softness and power that I had never seen before. I felt as though the artist had communicated with me over the centuries his own faith and feeling and I was filled with a new yearning and a new path. Where a building had failed to inspire, a long dead artist had.

On that day I decided to be a sculptor. At first I had wanted to express myself in stone but gravitated to steel despite myself. I was inspired by the visual art’s ability to communicate in a very real and personal way to those who observe it. I wanted to communicate my own faith and desire. I wanted my own questions and answers to find their way into the future after my own death, as Michelangelo had done for me. When you make art you give physical substance to an idea, belief or experience that would otherwise remain a phantom of the mind, a memory that can only be accessed by the thinker. Art, to me, is a self portrait that shares the parts of a person that exist beneath the skin, an intimate dialogue between object and viewer.

I hope that as you view my Sculptures they speak to you as they spoke to me. Thank you visiting, and enjoy the show.