The most consistent and enduring aspect of my work has been the concept of transformation. The subject matter and source of inspiration has always been the landscape, architecture and the architecture of writing. Yet the vantage point, the scale, material and process is continually changing. Early in my career I possessed a reluctance to commit to a particular style which developed from more a fear of being trapped in some vortex of my own creation than a desire for experimentation. I would have gladly alighted upon some reasonable course of action which held a minimum of artistic satisfaction; knowing that evolution would ultimately take it’s part in my development. But as the road to artistic identity remains a confusing journey I knew that I must simultaneously be rebellious of and sensitive to influence, however caustic this dichotomy might be to a stable and rational existence. After ten or so years of dedicated experimentation I felt it was time to commit to a discipline and resolved to satisfy my fascination with the landscape by engaging in the study and practice of carving mountains in stone within the tradition of Chinese Sung Dynasty Scholar Artist Poets. I had been informally studying Chinese landscape painting and the companion art of mountain carving for years and felt that this might be the highest ideal attainable with regard to interpreting the landscape. I had heard of a Chinese master carver living and working at an orthodox Chan Buddhist monastery. After much trepidation I asked to become a student. A month later I checked into the monastery for what would become a two year period of very little contact with the outside world. I immersed myself in the study of Yuan and Sung Dynasty landscape painting; the essential basis for cultivating an understanding of Chinese stone mountain carving; and translated my studies into producing a contemporary interpretive language with which to execute my monumental style landscape sculpture.

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