What happens between the raw and the cooked? When natural materials are abstracted by industrial processes, what is lost? What is gained? My work slips into the veil between the primeval forest of craft fantasy and the industrial world that surrounds us constantly and invisibly. Through an investigation of the alloy of material and form, my practice investigates and exposes the sleight of hand performed by the lumber industry, dwelling with wood-as-tree and following the course of materials from silviculture to the consumer product.
In my practice, I define craft as the investment of time into materials. In both the reflective time of research and contextualization and the active time of studio practice, I seek to understand how this investment of time, often figured as attention, comes to bear on the appearance and connotations of materials. Frequently my work focuses on details that are otherwise overlooked, from my initial investigation of surface incident in commercial goods to my current preoccupation with traditional processes and their co-evolution with industrial ones.
My material of choice is wood in all its forms: tropical hardwood to local sticks, OSB and mulberry bark, dimensional lumber and handmade plywood. These materials are vital to me and throughout my work I seek to express their vitality, awakening the viewer to the strangeness that lurks beneath even the most familiar things.