ABOUT ME
I have been making objects and art as long as I can remember. Growing up with an art teacher mom and an engineer dad, I spent a lot of time in the studio and woodshop. I was fortunate to grow up near an amazing art institute, Munson-Williams Proctor, in Utica, NY, which is where I first learned to weld and sculpt with metal and wood. Four years at Alfred University for my B.F.A in wood and metal sculpture shaped my path for the future. I've included this work in my galleries as a point of reference; . Having worked trail crew in New Mexico during the summers, I headed southwest after graduation with the hope that I could land a job in the many foundries or blacksmith shops in Santa Fe. As luck would have it, I found a job in a small foundry called Art Foundry where I would spend the next three years running the ceramic shell, wax burnout, and metal melting for artists such as Kiki Smith, Bruce Nauman, Richard Tuttle, David Anderson, and Terry Allen. I moved to Colorado in 1999 to work for the Park Service trail crew at Rocky Mountain National Park and spent most of my time constructing large dry fitted rock structures and log bridges for hiking trails. At some point during my first off-season from the Park Service, I decided to go back to school for metallurgical engineering. A large part of this decision was that I lived in Golden, CO, and the local university, Colorado School of Mines, has an incredible foundry. I was given free reign over the foundry and was able to build my blacksmith forge. I also helped teach the foundry science class, particularly the lab portion, and what we called "Friday Free Pour" where anyone could come to the foundry on Friday afternoon and make a sand mold and pour metal. After graduating from Mines, I worked a short while at an industrial prototype foundry, but soon found the job as a metallurgical engineer for a small analytical laboratory. This was the ideal job for my background; I utilized electron microscopy and chemical analysis to trouble shoot manufacturing problems but also relied on my knowledge from my foundry experience and creativity towards problem solving. After nine years, I decided to quit my job to do the two things I truly love: to stay home with my baby son and to focus on my art. My passion is to make finely crafted objects and to continuously explore forms that interest me.