Materials: mixed media (foam, wood, wire, resin, found object, etc)

Dimensions: 30″ tall each

The idea for “The Woodknotts of Roswell” emerged from a walk my daughter and I took through the nature trails at Leita Thompson Park, bouncing ideas back and forth about what kind of odd creatures might live there just out of sight. Rather than listing off the standard issue elves, pixies, and gnomes, we began developing the idea of small woodland creatures that grow and hatch from tree burls and become something between a plant and an animal, protectors of the forests in the same vein as Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax”. The Woodknotts were born. Generally, much of my work tends to come from this type of origin story. My art is rarely a deep seeded expression of my innermost desires or my critique on social, political, and cultural issues. There’s plenty of that available to view and experience and contemplate. Most of my art comes from stupid stories and inside jokes with my friends, silly puns and dad jokes with my kids, or faces that I see in clouds and in woodgrain and in piles of trash. I love dumpster diving and scavenging for discarded things to incorporate into my work. In fact, about 90% of the Woodknotts came from things that had been tossed aside by someone else. For me, making art is a compulsive act, a Sisyphean task that I will do until my hands fall off and my mind turns into tapioca pudding. To finish a project is to watch the boulder tip and begin to roll back down the hill, so that I may start all over on the next one. I take the process of making my art very seriously, but I’m rarely serious at all about my artwork.