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Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s Disease is so stressful that caregivers die at a rate 63% higher than those of the same age. The death of a spouse is considered to be the most stressful of life events. I found the combination to be truly shattering. The Love & Loss series is an attempt to convert the pain into visual metaphors that communicate some of what I experienced. I feel it is the strongest work that I have produced yet. Certainly, it is the most emotional.
2018
14.5” x 8.5” x 6”
Granite
Shortly after Judy died I had a dream in which she reappeared. I resumed caring for her but she disappeared again because I wasn’t watching her carefully enough. When she came back the second time I hugged her and said “I love you so very much.” She said “If you really love me, you’ll let me go.”
Letting go was the purpose of the sculpture series and is why this is the final sculpture.
2019
12" x 6" x 7"
Cherry wood
When Judy was given her diagnosis the neuropsychologist said that dementia would be her “new normal.” The New Normal depicts the destruction of her brain that led to her death.
2013
12" x 10" x 5"
Soapstone
2014
9" x 10" x 5"
Soapstone
2014
18" x 14" x 10"
Basalt
2014
12" x 11" x 6"
Olivine
2015
13” x 15” x 12”
Basalt, barite, Magic Eight Ball (tm)
Every day, behind the 8 ball, having to roll it up the mountain. Taking a precarious break.
2016
94" h x 24" dia.
Wood, steel, wood ash, polymer clay, acrylic paint.
"Phoenix" is a take on my caregiving journey from the joy of our original life together through the fire of dementia to my new solo life that felt full of ashes.
I'd purchased a couple of birdhouses for a craft project with Judy, thinking she'd enjoy painting them but she was too far along in her illness. They became the origin of the concept for Phoenix. This is The House of Love, painted to resemble our home prior to her illness with the two of us and the dog on the deck.
The center of the tree is burnt and scarred to symbolize the emotional pain that dementia causes. The text spiraling up the trunk is sentences from the behavior log I kept and alternate between statements that really hurt and ones that were very loving. The emotional whiplash was one of the most difficult aspects of caregiving.
Here is what the text says.
"The House of Ash," the feeling of a monochrome existence after Judy's death with me barely hanging on while the dog observes.
2017
82" x 22" x 18"
Basalt
When Judy's memory loss was becoming more evident I thought doing a stele that presented her life stories would help her reminisce. We enjoyed traveling in the Southwest and seeing the rock art so I designed petroglyphs to symbolize different events. Because her illness progressed so quickly I became her full-time caregiver. I’ve finally finished the work 7 years later.
In the lower left corner is her earliest memory of walking on the beach at Cannon Beach with her grandfather. The images progress through her teenage years with her horse then to raising her boys and introducing them to the outdoors.
Judy's middle years: falling in love on Mt. Rainier, outdoor adventures, building the house and gardens in the woods.
Continuing on through the latter part of her life, ending with the marriage of her youngest son and the birth of her first grandson.
The “Rock becoming Tree” series looks at the metaphor of the tree growing from the stone, portraying the power of the life force as a way to examine resilience, survival and the cycle of life. My interest in this theme began in 2001 when the image repeatedly arose in my mind during a sculpture workshop. Later, in September, my family and I were on a wilderness trip down the Rogue River in Oregon when we got news of the terror attacks that had occurred the day before. Stunned, we were trying to grasp the significance of what had happened when we drifted past a giant basalt boulder in the middle of the river with a tree growing from it. The pursuit of this metaphor immediately became my main artistic interest. Working on sculptures based on this image led to further associations and insights such as its connection to the World Tree/Tree of Life motif found in many cultures.
2022
10” x 2.5”
Marble rolling pin
The tree divides into two trunks which wrap around each other in a double helix mirroring that of a DNA molecule, hence the name. I carved this piece for an NWSSA show of sculptures made from marble rolling pins.
2007
12" x 7" x 12"
Steel, Sandstone, Copper
2008
8" x 4" x 2"
Chlorite on Andesite Base
2009
66" x 18" x 24"
Laminated Granite
2009
12" x 4" x 2"
Limestone on Steel Base
2010
5" x 3" x 1.5"
Chlorite on Granite Base
2010
12" x 6" x 2"
Limestone on Steel Base
2014
18" x 72" x 24"
Basalt
The “You Are Here” series of sculptures explores the sense of place and belonging by highlighting the topography that underpins where we live. By carving the sculpture from stone I hope that the viewer will have a sense of the image arising directly from the land that we inhabit. The scale, however, is drastically changed so that instead of being dwarfed by the landscape we can encompass it in a glance. Reflections of the viewer and the larger world in the mirror finish of the sculptures island allows us a sense of being in the landscape while being larger than the landscape.
2006
19" x 80" x 22"
Basalt
2006
19" x 80" x 22"
Basalt
2007
38" x 28" x 33"
Basalt
2007
38" x 28" x 33"
Basalt
2003
36" x 18" x 19"
Basalt
The abstract work from 1983 to 2005 primarily used hard natural stone native to the Pacific Northwest. This work was generally human scale and intended for the outdoors. It used the cycles of nature as metaphor for transformation and change, both physical and emotional. It also usually involved a dialogue with the nature of stone sculpture, pushing against the tradition of carving, mass and monolith.
2000
12" x 8" x 9"
Granite
2005
Variable Dimensions
River Boulders, Industrial Casters
2005
Variable dimensions
Boulders, industrial casters
2005
Variable dimensions
River Boulders, Industrial Casters
2003
72" x 23" x 15"
Granite, Conglomerate
2002
58" x 25" x 18"
Basalt
2001
68" x 23" x 21"
Basalt
2000
96" x 20" x 22"
Basalt
2000
27" x 14" x 18"
River Stone, Granite
1999
72" x 25" x 20"
Granite, Andesite
1999
56" x 25" x 20"
Basalt
1999
12" x 8 x 9"
Gneiss, granite
1998
14" x 20" x 16"
Granite
1997
84" x 12" x 20"
Granite
1995
48" x 24" x 12"
Granite
side view
1995
48" x 24" x 12"
Black Granite
1994
78" x 102" x 18"
Stone Cobbles
1985
99" x 9" x 5"
River Stone
1985
18" x 9" x 5"
Serpentine, Granite
1984
13" x 8" x 9"
Sandstone, Granite
1982
54" x 36" x 24"
Granite, Bronze, Wood
Sometimes a sculptor just wants to have fun.
1983
6" x 11" x 8"
River cobble, electrical parts
Plug it in, unlock the switch and turn it on. It then proceeds to do what rocks do.
1985
6" x 12" x 4"
Wax
A friend of mine was the textile conservator for the National Gallery and would go around muttering about the number of foot candles that paper and fiber art was exposed to. So I made a mold of my left foot and cast her a foot candle of her very own.
These sculptures are located in public spaces. I also have work outdoors at Matzke Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park and San Juan Islands Sculpture Park.
Arlington City Hall, Arlington WA
Newport Way Library, Bellevue, WA
Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles WA
Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle WA.
In 2006 the NWSSA did site specific public sculptures for La Conner, WA. I was one of the lead artists, working with Mark Heisel on design and fabrication of the 8’ long granite tugboat.
The canoe was based on one from the Swinomish Tribe. The artists worked closely with the tribal cultural committee.
The disc represents both a wheel from the tractors of the local farming community and a tribal drum. It says welcome in both Lushootseed and English.
2019
Laminated stone
10” x 8”x 10”
A meditation on the interaction of water and stone
During the winter of 2020-21 before vaccines were available I didn’t go to the group studio. Instead I stayed home and worked on sculptural materials I had there. I created two versions of 2020 Hugs to convey the sense of isolation and sorrow I felt in going one year and one week before hugging another person. The first version used part of a rotten plum tree which had come down in my backyard two years before. The roughly carved trunks diverge into two arms with more finished hands reaching for each other. I charred the surface to give a feeling of the emotional intensity I wanted to convey.
The second version I carved out of two marble rolling pins I’d picked up at Goodwill over the years with no idea what I was going to use them for. In this piece instead of the yearning expressed in reaching out I emphasized virtual hugs, closing in on oneself. The two pieces are socially distanced on a scrap metal base that represents the battered ground we all felt at the time.
2021
Charred Plum Wood
2 pieces, 60” x 16” dia. and 48” x 16” dia., placed 6 feet apart.
2021
Two 9” x 2.5” columns placed 9” apart
Marble rolling pins on scrap metal base
Early in my career I did mixed media pieces but granite took over my life and I spent 35 years carving stone. Recently I started working on putting together the Pantheon of Odd Gods, celebrating the quirky and fun-loving spirits that possess my thoughts and not coincidentally trying to repurpose the pile of scrap gardening equipment left over when I stopped raising most of my food.
2021
60” x 24” x 12”
Repurposed scrap
I created Welcome Will, God of Welcome, in hopes that delivery drivers would stop leaving my neighbors’ packages on my porch. He works for UPS and Amazon, mostly for USPS and not at all for FedEx.
2022
21” x 12” x 18”
Mixed media
WALSTIB, God of Unexpected Journeys, started out 21 years ago as a riff on Brancusi’s “Portrait of a Young Man.” It went through a number of changes as it took control of the sculpture process from me and ended up very very different. These things happen: Art frequently is an unexpected journey.
2023
10” diameter
kitchen utensils
I have promised Spot at least one burnt offering per week on my stove in exchange for never letting my leftovers go bad.
