My sculpture fuses the forms and gestures of humans and the botanical world, embodying the living energy we share. At once animal, vegetable and mineral, Hand Plants can be read as deliberately cultivated hybrids, or as random and disturbing mutations. A hand is a leaf, or the earth itself. Fingers are flower petals that invite close inspection but might also poke the viewer in the eye. They range in size from intimate scale to public work. When installed in the landscape, they appear to grow straight out of the ground.

I work with bronze directly, liberating it from the dutiful role of replicating forms made in other materials. The process begins in a sandbox, in a spirit of meditation and play. My hands, arms, and feet press into casting sand, imprinting the expressive energy of the body into the mold. I then ladle molten bronze into the hollows created by the body. Using a spontaneous, collage-like vocabulary, I weld the cast elements together, integrating the ancient tradition of cast bronze with the contemporary open forms of fabricated metal sculpture. Sometimes I include diminutive human and animal forms in various relationships with the plants, creating a more narrative, mythic dimension.

The printing press and bronze foundry are traditionally used to create editions. I use these tools in a spirit of spontaneous improvisation; no two works are alike. Monotypes are created in collaboration with the botanical world. Leaves and stems are placed directly on the inked surface of the printing plate, initially creating stencils. I then remove the plants and run the plate again, printing the impression left by the leaves on the plate. Negative and positive forms alternate, building layer upon layer, as the plant material embosses the paper. The meditative energy of the plants and their structure is the underlying matrix of the work.