Inanimate matter organized itself into living organisms over three billion years ago and from them all life on earth unfurled. Abiogenesis explores the connections between inanimate matter, living creatures, and creatures living with one another. In these works the medium and the subject are also intertwined.

 

Both gypsum and plaster are mostly comprised of calcium carbonate that results from sedimentation of the exoskeletons of unicellular organisms, such as foraminifera and coral polyps, on the ocean floor over billions of years. I carve and cast these exoskeleton forms in plaster. And I also build erosional forms with gypsum that reference places such as the White Cliffs of Dover. Places where massive deposits of calcium carbonate have been lifted off the seafloor, exposed by tectonic forces, and then sculpted by the elements.

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Like unicellular organisms, the beauty and variety of pollen grains can only be appreciated under magnification. I use encaustic, an ancient medium that is mostly comprised of beeswax, to explore the world of pollen. Wax is a byproduct of the symbiosis between flowers and bees. And what is more, the golden color of the wax comes from the pollen suspended within it. Here again, the medium and the subject inspire one-another.

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If nature is my church, then making art is my devotion and service.