My show CONTACT, was at By Hand Gallery from June 1st—July 31st. This exhibit is a new body of work. Most pieces are of forged and fabricated steel with some glass elements. One, Snake Goddess: Circle of Life (Minoa), is hand-carved limestone. I’ve included here my artist’s statement which tries to codify in several paragraphs what is involved in my creative process.

Bloomington Open Studios Tour 2015 was indeed a robust event. Forty–five enthusiastic artists showed and talked about their work with the public in their own or a friend’s studio. Visitors told us that they had a splendid time looking at and discussing the work with us face–to–face. No pristine white museum walls, lots of in–process works and ideas talked about, demonstrations, teaching/learning inquiries, and some folks went home with a newly acquired work of art!

This bird was torchformed of Borosilcate glass and sand-blasted. She is destined to become a part of a steel sculptural piece.

Although only mid-March, a quiet warmth had been pushing in, our sodden marsh was bloated with singing, and early that morning after having been alerted by their spousal honks, I watched long arcs of Sandhills on the wing fly toward Wisconsin. Our Danny Burr Hollow was alert with anticipation. The real chatter began late in the afternoon. It was a clatter of overlapping sharp and shrill calls. I had been working at the anvil for several hours on four elongated bulbous forms that were to resemble the dried okra pods from last year’s garden that I had stuck in a swage block for reference. My material was a 6” chunk of ¾” diameter steel rod into which I hammered a “shoulder” and created an all-around cradle-shape that was to be the spherical base of the pod. Then I pulled a gradual point on the end, tuned up its symmetry and texture, and finally drew down the length of the stem to 18” long. While this description sounds straight forward, in reality the process took many heats in the forge. Each heat must bring the material to a glowing yellow – about 2000 degrees – for me to be able to coax the unforgiving bar of hard steel between my hammer and anvil into any semblance of the form I was trying to achieve. The roaring forge had spit out so much heat that the temperature in the studio had risen to over 80 degrees. Laboring in long sleeves and a leather apron and gloves, I had to keep wiping the sweat off from around my eyes with my forearm to keep my glasses on my face, while still holding onto the tongs in one hand and the work piece in the other. But fast, everything needs to be done with dispatch – or you loose the heat.

It is about to happen. Bloomington is abuzz with artists preparing their spaces for visitors, moving things about to display their works and their wares, and in my case, removing or shutting down those things that might be dangerous, like the forge, the saws, the hammers, the welder and so on.