ARTIST STATEMENT

The ideas for my sculptures and drawings spring from observations of nature, memories of distant events and places, and reactions to present day human conduct.

I am particularly moved and awestruck by the tenacious and unexpected moments when life seems determined to go on despite the most severe obstacles: a log cut in winter that sprouts the following spring, a tree that clings and grows in the cracks of a granite cliff. Hamza, a Turkish stonemason, once said upon seeing one of my works, that it reminded him of the Turkish saying: “One tree supports the whole world.“ The Sakura drawings and sculptures (“cherry tree” in Japanese) are attempts to express such a celebration of life. My work explores the circularity of life and the possibility of rebirth as in the theme of the tree of life in early Christian art. Recently, I have started to bring humor into some of my work to balance dark and light metaphors.