Lift Sculpture

Born 1947 and grew up in Columbus Georgia. I have also lived in Alabama, Texas, California, Alaska and Florida. For the past 20 years I have lived on a small Island on the west coast of Florida north of Sarasota and south of St. Petersburg. An art instructor friend told me to get the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". I was very surprised to find out what I was able to do thanks to this book. I bootstrapped an education in art. By 1981 I had read many how-to books on painting and researched history of art, famous painters and their biographies. Studied art on my own beginning in 1979. Studied painting styles of Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia Okeefe and other artists mostly expressionists (including their very interesting lives!). Experimented with all sorts of methods, layering, loading the brush heavily and then doing the opposite or very different approach. I began mostly painting in oil and experimenting with painting techniques of the masters. I learned how to make oil paint and mediums from from raw ingredients. Most recently I have taken to painting with acrylics. I took a commission to make a sculptural piece in 1985 having never sculpted anything seriously in my life. This led to the creation of a business supplying designers and decorators with functional and decorative art including tables, consoles, friezes, brackets, whatever was needed that I could reasonably make. In 2015 I became interested in Ceramics and rented studio space at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, Florida. I wanted to make sculptures in glass and in 2017 I was able to talk my way into Duncan Mclellan's glass hot shop (DMG glass) where I cast my first glass work. All of my current work is glass. I have combined concrete with glass and thinking of combining bronze with glass. Function is anathema to me now. I just want the work to be artful and visually, sensually, spiritually appealing.