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 Most
of my works are self-portraits.
Sands of Time comes out of the early (begun in
1979)
"Ascending Bowl" series, which has been updated or reinvented to
reflect the passage of time, the erosion which occurred physically in my
life since a difficult accident in the mid 80s (not to mention the aspects
of getting older). Having worked with my father since the age of ten (he
told me I worked with him as soon as I could walk), I have seen the way
life affects the body. Towards the end of his life, watching my father
who could barely walk, as he worked at the lathe, I saw he still had upper
body strength and a keen sense of form, perhaps the keenest it had ever
been. I saw that his work, though a struggle, was a joy to him; it was
the life-blood of his existence and ever critical in his daily routine,
even if just for an hour a day.
Sands of Time is about the
beauty of existence in aging.
It is about revealing the truth of what we are made of, the process we
must go through in life which none escape. Perhaps this is now a newly
vital "Ascending Bowl" for me, as I come to terms with the fact that I can
no longer lift that two hundred pound burl up onto my shoulder out in the
woods and walk off with it. Like the driftwood discovered on a solitary
walk along the beach, this wood shows evidence of previous life and prior
glory, yet, while aging has taken something away, it has also added depth
and expressiveness, and revealed the true and lasting qualities of the
material. |
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