The Process

My work is a reflection of the investigation into different approaches to art from early experiences and from academic education. The first reflection of exposure to art began with my uncle and my father who were both artists. I apprenticed early with both of them in their studios and rather than searching for art, I was indoctrinated from the beginning. My father was a formal painter and an illustrator; my uncle was an expressionist painter/sculptor. I benefited from them because of their very different approaches in objectives and styles, and for me it was the best of two different worlds.

In the academic arena, constructivism, deconstructivism, abstract expressionism, and minimalism became the influences that set the tone for my development. Those reflections have continued to steer the approach to my work. And while I don't feel like I am a minimalist artist, I do feel the constant inspiration of minimalism. The sculpture of Louise Nevelson's construction boxes and forms that reduced the medium to anonymous materials was also very important in my beginning expressions. Nevelson's compartments and contained-boxed forms are also a reoccurring influence. While my work involves inspirations from Egyptian, Archaic Greek and Syrian art and architecture, Nevelson's enclosures seemed to capture the mythic connection of chambers, crypt, and niches of historic sculptural architecture. At this time another reflection was the southern California car-cult finish fetish movement of surf board, hot rods and super attention to polish surface that began a prevailing expression in academic fine art approach and execution. These reflections were melded with my desire to explore architectural design and interior design. These are still the major statements in my work.

The approach for content in my work was heavily influenced by architects and architecture from the thirties, forties, and fifties. Specifically Charles Eames, RM Schindler, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto and my peer group at this time who were also students involved in architectural research and development while in school. In terms of form, my specific sculptural influences were Larry Bell, Frank Stella, Donald Judd, Edward Rusha, and of course, Isamu Noguchi. I also have a continuing gratitude to Barbara Hepworth's mystical negative spaces contained within her sculptures that continue to emphasize the physical reality of the void, the negative space of the hole.

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