Artist Statement:
My relationship with stone spans three generations. My Grandfather was a rock hound, whose interest in stone was emboldened by my Father, a master stone mason and lifelong student of geology. My affinity for stone was not something that I chose, but was born with, often a blessing and occasionally a curse.
I grew up in the high peak region of the Adirondack Mountains and climbed them all by the time I was a teenager. As a youngster, if I saw a stone and had to have it, it went in my pocket or backpack and I'd carry it miles. As I grew older, the stones got heavier and the distances further. My earliest memory is in a stone quarry watching my father pick stone to build a fireplace, then having to wait in his red truck because it started to rain.
In my teenage years I would spend my weekends and breaks from school tending my father build fireplaces and "geologizing" or looking for stone. I always had a talent for carving stone, sculpting my first stone vessel at age 17 and building my first fireplace at age 21. I went to college for Business and Economics with minors in Geology and Arabic at The State University of New York at Potsdam. Now I spend my days discovering and sculpting stone, preferably Anorthosite.
My relationship with stone spans three generations. My Grandfather was a rock hound, whose interest in stone was emboldened by my Father, a master stone mason and lifelong student of geology. My affinity for stone was not something that I chose, but was born with, often a blessing and occasionally a curse.
I grew up in the high peak region of the Adirondack Mountains and climbed them all by the time I was a teenager. As a youngster, if I saw a stone and had to have it, it went in my pocket or backpack and I'd carry it miles. As I grew older, the stones got heavier and the distances further. My earliest memory is in a stone quarry watching my father pick stone to build a fireplace, then having to wait in his red truck because it started to rain.
In my teenage years I would spend my weekends and breaks from school tending my father build fireplaces and "geologizing" or looking for stone. I always had a talent for carving stone, sculpting my first stone vessel at age 17 and building my first fireplace at age 21. I went to college for Business and Economics with minors in Geology and Arabic at The State University of New York at Potsdam. Now I spend my days discovering and sculpting stone, preferably Anorthosite.