The Stories Surrounding Us (Totems)
What about the beings that have been witness to a changing landscape and history of this region? Beings that have recorded the big changes to our climate from before any of us were here? What about the trees? Trees are living barometers who record the times in beautiful and poetic ways. In my work I seek to highlight some of these stories even though they are reflected to me in a foreign language. Sometimes I have an idea for what direction I would like to take a piece of wood based upon an initial impression while other times I relent to a process of starting, stopping, waiting and watching at the piece for weeks (or even months), until the grain, knots, or other anomalies connect to tell more of a story that inspires me to push the work further. Some of this wood I have the honor of working with has been around for a really long time. The wood I work with does not come to me without some consideration. When trees near my home come down (due to development, disease, storm damage or for disrupting the power grid) I attempt to contact the owner or property manager to find out if there are pieces I could work with so I can commemorate the tree itself, in some way. I record the geographic coordinates of these trees and add this data to the name of each piece. My hope is to memorialize these organisms and highlight places that have changed so much over many years. What was the tree and site like 50 years ago? 100 years ago? In this way, I see each of these pieces as totems, with the resulting biomorphic forms suggesting action, playfulness, and potential utility. For the majority of my career I have kept my design work and my artwork on separate tracks but I am consciously looking for ways to merge both practices in ways that tell stories and blur the lines of prescription.
