Just as language is a series of symbols arranged and rearranged, so is the world, and all that it contains. In my works, I use a unique type of visual speech that draws from this world-wide pool of elements. A color, say green, to symbolize growth; or a texture such as sandpaper, to represent resistance through perseverance. One symbol by itself is basic, but multiple symbols combine to form a new vernacular. A statement can be made, a purpose communicated, or a vision expressed by deciphering the symbols needed and re-ciphering them in a way that others will understand.

I use as much “junk”, or recycled material, as possible in my work; a tangible hands-on representation of the way life is in a constant progress of regeneration and transformation. This is my attempt to see it, feel it, turn it over and try to understand it, in all its ways. In gallery pieces this has always been blatantly personal. Communication relies on figuring out how to bridge the chasm and share my own renovation. How do I get another person to see as I see? How to get them to search as I have searched? On the other hand, in commissioned works, the challenge is to keep it from being overtly non-personal. The ‘how do I get another person to see as I see?’ has to be flip-flopped to be effective: how do I get myself to see as another, or as a group? In doing so, I step into the role of an interpreter, through which their vision is transcribed.

In the end, it is getting one group to see how another group sees.