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I believe that a visual artwork should stand alone. It may convey a feeling or a meaning that should move people without need of a single printed rational word. I am delighted with the way that Beethoven, or Mozart, can evoke feelings that are so powerful without use of lyrics or narrative. A piano can be played in such a way that one can be reminded of a thunderstorm, or of optimism, or of sorrow, and though sculpture can never be quite as abstract as music, there are things that sculpture can do that nothing else can do. I believe that sculpture can provide a physical inspiration for the viewer that might inform the viewer about an actual instant of physical existence. Any object may carry a referential charge, and most experiences probably will remind us of something else that has already made an impression on us. But the art experience that can transcend this reference to become itself is something special. It becomes something worth being with. It becomes a reminder of ultimate possibilities. I feel that the best art is about human liberty. Abstract art is one form of liberty that can remind us all of potential, and of possibilities that are just a little beyond what we have seen so far. Eugene Delacroix charged artists with this encouragement: “You who know there is always something new, reveal that to others in that which they may have overlooked.” I enjoy the implications of this responsibility, because it means that traditional subjects, or contemporary ideas, all have the potential to reveal something new to us in ways that we might have been overlooking. My own work has become referentially charged and infinitely connected to the methods that I use to find hope and freedom in the face of life’s challenges. I do not seek to make my feelings about life illustrated. I simply hope to speak poetically using material so that some other human might feel that they recognize something valuable about being alive within the experiences that I offer them. I simply seek to describe what is important to me about being alive. The themes have been many, the materials and means to address these have changed many times, but the basic hope is that the work can mean something significant to someone else without me using my literary skills to bolster the significance. The works are genuine documents that testify that, in the face of my fears, I did not give up trying to make sense of life.
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