"Saguaro Shorties" Sculpture

Visually speaking, my fascination with the desert lies in the contrast of detail and vast space. This phenomenon is nowhere more apparent than in the light rays cast by a blistering sunset as they splinter through thousands of Saguaro needles. As Napoleon observed, “geography is destiny,” and the desert has made itself specific to my experience. In my work I try to depict what it is to be a desert dweller. I synthesize what I see, which can be the smallest detail extrapolated into a sweeping statement about the landscape. The feeling of standing in the desert is, perhaps, comparable only to that felt by those who have stood in outer space. Quite appropriately, I often combine satellite images and NASA images with detailed drawings of plant life I find near my studio. Consequently, planets and jet contrails often find themselves married to the prehistoric looking environment of the Sonoran Desert, wed to another by symmetry and juxtaposition. To this end, I use both traditional and nontraditional media. This allows me to use hand-drawn work in combination with computer-generated drawing. It also means I can push the boundaries of drawing out of the picture plane and use line, light, and space as a three-dimensional landscape drawing. As I look to the future, I hope to incorporate elements of the artistic process into the final product, effectively blurring the line between creation and installation.