Brain Games 9.0 Sculpture

My current body of work builds upon games that I developed as part of my studio practice. The games began as a way to get out of my own head and to challenge myself in the studio. In the beginning, I would use 1 to 5 minute building exercises with whatever was lying around the studio as a way to ignite the creative side of my brain. As this warm up practice grew it began to consistently reveal that interesting work, worthy of further exploration, was happening during those short periods. This current series, Brain Games, is the product of playing building games with random organic shapes that I cut out of sheets of steel and then weld back together. By first cutting hundreds of individual pieces to choose from while I sculpt I am able to build with the same intentions as my short exercises and ultimately eliminate my conscious mind from the equation and create work with my heart. I have found this approach to be extremely meditative, providing a realm for the work to move freely through me. As Chegal said, “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”