Nineteen-hundred and seventy-four

For my work I use clay as the initial medium, laid up on armatures, or built in the hand if size permits. I choose clay because it is very plastic, reusable, fairly durable when fired; and molds can be taken from it for casting in more durable materials. I find that as I come to understand clay, I am able to achieve greater technical flexibility and broaden the parameters of my conception. I choose the head because it seems to articulate practically everything about the figure in a form of "shorthand". The head has the ability to focus the particular kinds of energy that the body expresses. Eric Ambler wrote: A man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for their fulfillment and which his fears demand for their protection from prying eyes It is a screen to his mind's nakedness. Only a few men, painters, have been able to see the mind through the face. I see the head, or face, as the ultimate expression of not only man's mind, but soul as well. I am interested in exploring the "poetry of being" in the latter part of the Twentieth Century as our civilization approaches the third millennium. I choose models for their availability and their face, which comes to the surface of the crowd