Animal Spirits Sculpture

I'm a carved wood and mixed media artist living in southern Arizona, seventy miles north of the US/Mexico border. This region of the Sonoran Desert is known for its sky islands, mountain ranges that rise abruptly from the desert or grasslands. The varied topography creates ecosystems of exceptionally high biodiversity. A guiding ethic in my life is to walk lightly on the Earth. To honor that ethic, I create my pieces predominantly from sustainable, found, and reclaimed materials. In summer or fall, I visit aspen forests in Arizona and northern New Mexico to collect naturally downed wood for my carvings. I view each forest sojourn as a pilgrimage. For my artwork, I have chosen a style that blends the folkloric, mythic, and sacred. In my visual narrative, current and dire sociopolitical issues, such as threats to the natural world, and causes for human migration mix with reasons to be hopeful and beauty to celebrate. Whether inspired by walking in the forests or deserts of the Southwest, observing the trees, cacti, ravens, or owls, helping to free a coyote from a steel jaw trap, or witnessing people walking silently, single file across the desert from the US/Mexico border in search of safety, I make art to keep my life in balance with the lives of the other living beings on Earth.