I am an artist/designer and a teacher. After teaching the Jewelry and Metals Design program at Illinois State University for 25 years I recently retired to devote more time to my studio work and to travel. I was formally trained in Art Jewelry at Arizona State University where I received my BFA and at the University Of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana where I received my MFA.
In the early 1990's having become enamored of the designers of the Wiener Werkstaette of the Vienna Secession my work began to move away from jewelry and began to embrace furniture and home accessories such as lighting. I continued to make jewelry as well but it became more sculptural and usually had a duality of purpose. In its first incarnation it would be a part of a greater whole and form a sculptural object. However, in its second incarnation it could be removed from its "home" and be worn as a piece of jewelry. In the middle to late 1990's and continuing into the present I have done much commission work for one of a kind furniture and accessories. In my current body of work I am referencing the early 19th century Biedermeier style in a series of one of a kind clocks. Examples of my work can be found in The Gallery
My scholarly interests still lie with the turn of the century movements in Europe and in particular the Vienna Seccession, The Scottish phenomenon of Charles Rennie Macintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald Macintosh, and the German Leben Reform Movement and in particular the artist community at Mathildenhohe in Darmstadt, Germany.
In 2003 I spent my spring semester on Sabbatical doing research in Vienna Austria, Glasgow Scotland and Darmstadt Germany.
If my first passion is the making and teaching of Fine Craft than my second is photography. I have very little formal training in this art form but I do have a real desire to explore my skills and make myself "see" the world as a better observer.
As a goal to which to which aspire this is summed up in a quote by Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt.
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
Examples of my photography can be found in The Photograpy Gallery. Many of these images are earlier and were shot on slide film. I have scanned and digitized my favorites.
In the early 1990's having become enamored of the designers of the Wiener Werkstaette of the Vienna Secession my work began to move away from jewelry and began to embrace furniture and home accessories such as lighting. I continued to make jewelry as well but it became more sculptural and usually had a duality of purpose. In its first incarnation it would be a part of a greater whole and form a sculptural object. However, in its second incarnation it could be removed from its "home" and be worn as a piece of jewelry. In the middle to late 1990's and continuing into the present I have done much commission work for one of a kind furniture and accessories. In my current body of work I am referencing the early 19th century Biedermeier style in a series of one of a kind clocks. Examples of my work can be found in The Gallery
My scholarly interests still lie with the turn of the century movements in Europe and in particular the Vienna Seccession, The Scottish phenomenon of Charles Rennie Macintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald Macintosh, and the German Leben Reform Movement and in particular the artist community at Mathildenhohe in Darmstadt, Germany.
In 2003 I spent my spring semester on Sabbatical doing research in Vienna Austria, Glasgow Scotland and Darmstadt Germany.
If my first passion is the making and teaching of Fine Craft than my second is photography. I have very little formal training in this art form but I do have a real desire to explore my skills and make myself "see" the world as a better observer.
As a goal to which to which aspire this is summed up in a quote by Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt.
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
Examples of my photography can be found in The Photograpy Gallery. Many of these images are earlier and were shot on slide film. I have scanned and digitized my favorites.