I have been creating, in a manner consistent with a classical definition of art, from a very early age and

long before I came to think of myself as an artist. Before the age of five-years-old, I often stood on an
upturned bucket in a machine shop to weld. I assembled discarded parts from farm implements and
scrap iron into small towers of intertwined and cantilevered shapes and form. There was little purpose
in what I created, other than my own pleasure and the wonderment of those who viewed my finished
work. The impulses that compelled me then, are in many ways the same forces that drive me to create
art today. I take tremendous satisfaction in the act of creation itself and in the process by which I
eventually produce a finished piece of work. I enjoy the challenges and complications that artmaking
epitomizes, and I relish the freedom that it offers in its innumerable and divergent solutions and
interpretations. My work is varied, in subject matter and media. At times, my art is essentially
decorative or even functional. In other cases, I create art as an act of personal expression to make my
own ideas and beliefs tangible and evident to the viewer. Regardless of the art I produce, the impetus
remains principally consistent. As an artist and an educator, I try to provide my students the opportunity
to bring their own experiences and abilities to bear on the challenges artmaking poses and to experience
that satisfaction and joy of success and accomplishment, regardless of what that means for the
individual.