The various elements of wood--sapwood, heartwood, burls, crotches, bark, spalting, grain--fascinate me.  Turning a piece of wood is an adventure, and it is impossible for the wood turner to be in complete control.  Hidden features nearly always emerge, and turning a piece usually follows a route that is unpredictable.

My first series of work was the Formal Series. These pieces minimize the features of the wood (everything is eliminated with the exception of the grain), which makes the geometric form of paramount importance.  As a result, some of these pieces are the most challenging to produce.

I've always admired pieces which have a natural edge, as it gives so much insight into the background of the original wood.  This provided the inspiration for the Bark Series, where the challenge is to balance the form of the turned wood with the drama of the natural edge.

The Natural Series takes these challenges to an additional level.  In this series,  the dominant natural features are burls (which occur when too many dormant branch cells are activated), crotches (where the tree splits into two or more major branches, and the cell structure which develops to keep the branches from splitting results in grain detail called "feathering"), decay and other irregularities.  While these can produce some of the most spectacular results, these pieces can be the most difficult to create.

Contradictions is a series of work which highlight the contrasts between the natural wood and a painted, burned or textured highlight.  The viewer is drawn in and challenged by the unnatural highlight, often coming back to the piece in order to reexamine the tension that has been presented.