Artist's Statement & Biography

My work is based on ideas that utilize found objects in an effort to re-create, or at least suggest, moments of my life. As a teenager, I worked with my father and an 80 year old gentleman repairing household appliances, and I appreciated the craftsmanship and style of these common things. The everyday tools that I embellish with neon & argon-filled tubing represent pieces of my life viewed through a slightly tweaked lens. The prosaic nature of the object is readily apparent, but the view can include a new, whimsical component.

My use of older appliances and other objects is also based on their basic design integrity, since I don't much care for the design of similar contemporary items. I have a particular fondness for the Art Deco period of design, and find these objects to be so much more visually interesting and engineered so much better than most anything built today. I also am quite interested in flight in general, and aircraft from the 1900's into the early 1950's, and I often use winged motifs in my work.

My approach to art is largely based on my experience in designing, building, and repairing components of appliances, bicycles, automobiles and houses, and anything else that I either need to fix or improve. This knowledge-base helps in the build portion of a piece, but I look for the unexpected in the re-design: a visual or verbal pun, or maybe a cultural reference can be the jump-off point for transforming the appliance into something that makes me smile, or at least stop thinking of the appliance as an appliance. I believe in Paul Klee's maxim: "Art isn't what you see; art makes you see."

I own and operate a design studio, Acme Glass Works, in Spokane, Washington, where I produce neon signs and art. I studied at Rio Hondo College in California and started learning the craft of glass-bending at the Neon Art School in Oregon. My glass mentors include the late Glenn Walters and Bob Williams, both of Spokane.

My work experience includes: appliance repair, drafting, technical illustration, graphic design, carpentry, auto mechanics, metal fabrication, sign-making, and glass-bending in California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.