Prototype

artist's statement

After having the opportunity to take workshops in metalsmithing and encaustic painting long after college, I was eager to further explore the possibilities they offered, but knew the best way to get to know them better was through the age old practice of trial and error. 

While out on my regular hikes through the woods, I started to take notice of the design, shape, and function of seed heads and seed pods; the season's end product of plants, and was especially drawn to plants listed in Montana as invasive or noxious. These tenacious plants are impressive in their hardiness; thus translating to being good candidates for preservation in wax, (and also possessing somewhat sinister characteristics that I find appealing), to then somehow contain and examine.

Other artworks focus more on a plant's phyllotaxis; (the mathematical sequencing of growth) or other aspects of geometry and symmetry that catch my eye. This will often lead me down a path of revisiting long forgotten math equations or geometry, and lead to exploring ancient astronomers, philosophers, and mathematicians, and their theories of the universe. 

Each piece generally takes me several months to complete, requiring plenty of trial and error, prototypes, learning new tools, a bit of engineering, and all along incorporating the unexplainable creative spark of ideas.