The Center is first the core, then the heart, then the hub. The technology of our advanced “civilized” society in all of its complexity seems totally chaotic to me at times. We are distracted by superficialities such as material wealth and physical beauty and this pattern often causes us to overlook what is most important. These images and their centers represent what is organic and primitive, yet completely ordered through naturally occurring patterns. My “Centers” are meant to remind the viewer of the need to focus on the core, where the object’s strength and stability lie, and relate it back to themselves. The act of centering the self is essential to health and wellbeing.

As architectural elements of a space these images become the focal point or centerpiece of a gathering place. Those that enter into this space are prompted to convert thoughts of external space into internal space. People inhabit shared spaces universally and timelessly and these patterns are reflected in the visual patterns of nature. The Nautilus shell, with its logarithmic spiral is the architecture of a space that is universally human. Within the space of each segment lies every instant of human experience. We reside within objects such as the grapefruit or the kiwi, within the crevices of their modules. These segments are akin to our own internal organs. By exploring such spaces we can learn the truth inherent in our own centers, in the centers of objects that we often overlook, and the centers of spaces that we inhabit.

My “Centers” represent the utopia while my “Figures” characterize the unmet need, the longing, the journey, and the human struggle. They are made from a fundamental human necessity to reconnect with balance and center. Understated in their manifestations of pain, they are hopeful and honest, meant to subtly portray the struggle that we all have to maintian these ideals.

By carving into the wood I symbolically carve into the surface of exteriors, into the psyche, into thought, into what is just beneath the surface. This carving is similar to the literal carving that I do with the Centers. The physically carved wood is sometimes left totally exposed, pure wood, like an open wound. If a wound is left laid open it will likely heal of its own accord. As long as the right cicumstances are in place light and air will heal it. Psychological wounds behave in the same manner. Supression creates pain. Let out into the open though these original wounds have an opportunity to become light, to heal, and thus merge with the self.