I was born and raised on the vast and windy prairies of central Wyoming. Growing up, I spent much of my time in the family workshop-a draperies and custom window covering business-surrounded by endless assortments of fabric samples and myriads of colors. To keep me occupied while working, my parents would give me a hammer and nails, and a pile of wood to create with. My earliest design experimentation can be traced to building little wooden stools, where I learned the hard way they collapse without support bars. My later exploits into the art world proved more successful and I have spent the last 30 years exploring a wide range of different media, gaining expertise in design and craftsmanship.

Design experimentation has always been appealing to me. For me, the adventure in art comes from exploration where the only constant is, "What if?". The purpose of a piece is held in its original search and discovery, rather than in its final form. Realizing that a piece can have the power to change the wearer or can itself be changed by a wearer, I create most forms to be fluid, lending themselves to broad interpretation.

Combined with my love of color, metalsmithing has led me naturally into the art of enameling, my current focus, where the serendipitous characteristics of the trade hold particular allure. After a lifetime of studying and creating art, I am now able to unify several elements of design, and ultimately incorporate the most important element of all-fun.

I spent many of my years growing up helping my parents renovate their big, old, fixer-upper house gaining skills from carpentry, masonry, plumping, and wiring, to general construction and building code knowledge. Somewhere along the line, I started to learn the basic elements of design as well.

I like jewelry pieces to be clearly and sharply defined in appearance and to exhibit a refined form and style that can be universally enjoyed. A successful piece will reveal its actual construction process when all the elements come together naturally. For example, texture can determine the shape and size of an object, which in turn can determine the object’s function.

Though my formal education was not in art, my studies in Anthropology and Political Science have fueled my love for travel, adventure, and discovery, and was a natural lead in to metalsmithing. No other medium encompasses such a vast array of techniques, and it is appealing because of the seemingly immeasurable versatility of the materials and methods used to manipulate the materials.