ARTIST STATEMENT

Time management, organization, discipline, disease, death, paper-pushing – these describe what occupied the first phase of my life. From that world I escaped and immersed myself in 3-dimensional art for this life-phase.

In today’s world the architectural landscape is for the most part, straight and right-angled. The contrarian in me therefore prefers the curved wheel-thrown form or the hand-built round sphere to carve. I collaborate with 3 ceramic artists, Daven Hee, Cory Lum and Joel Park – they throw beautiful forms for me – and watch while I take their lovely pieces and carve away at them. I like to think that I add something by cutting away….less is more.

Recently I have been carving my own hand-built pieces – they seem to have a slightly organic look – by that I mean human organ– perhaps remnants of my past life as a physician.

The carved designs are my mind’s interpretation of something I saw in a garden, in a shop, on the street – fragments of memories reinterpreted. They are spontaneously etched on clay and then carved – no drawings, no planning, no templates. The designs tend to be non-repetitive because carving the same pattern over and over again requires discipline and is, well, boring. The designs tend to be complex – I do not care how long a carving will take – days, weeks, months.