Where does a story begin.. Where does it end? It can be difficult to pin down to a single event. However, some moments influence the balance of your life and how you thought about the world and art.
Growing up in Glacier National Park Montana it was only natural that I would explore this expansive playground of my youth. The landscape there informed every aspect of who I am. The land reaches up to an expression of stone and sky, time mingles motionless against the blue and billowing dream. Every fold of the immediate landscape, the roots, olfactory of summer, the endless discoveries and artifacts of history, the close-knit community and people committed to its preservation would inspire in me a passion for creating public art.
I was eighteen when I discovered, among the rubble of mudstone, what became central to my future as an artist. The ocean ripple would become a form central to my work, a grand expression of place… and transform my understanding of art as placemaking.
Mudstone and evidence of an ancient ocean
Using a wooden wedge and light taps to the stone, I opened a breathtaking view of wave pattern, revealing the artifact... millions of years in the making and underlying all. Every striation that built these mountains were once an inland ocean. It made my surroundings feel even more dynamic and timeless.
It was a discovery among many that would instilled in me a passion for public art and collaboration. The event deepened my understanding of art, what creativity represents and inspired my insights into the value of nature to healthy communities. Ten years later the work would become an integrated expression of art and infrastructure along the Edmonds Waterfront.
Edmonds Waterfront / Transformed
Edmonds Waterfront / Integrated Wave Pattern
I am interested in art that reclaims a connection to the landscape and in the process shifts our understanding of creative placemaking to building community.
When reminded of our sense of place we find direction, nature invites us, by its very design to be part of that grand intelligence.
With every public project, there is also a personal investment embedded in the creative process.
The evolution of an idea requires my growth. I know the art is generating meaning because I can feel and notice the structural shifts in my awareness and understanding of a project, the site and its positive transformation.