I’m working on a new series of ideas that primarily incorporate figures and horses, part of this idea is experimenting with compositions inspired by recent experiences with my children and farm animals.
I’m excited about this direction because it challenges me compositionally while drawing out the relationships and connections found in the natural world pulled into each piece.

The piece I’m currently working on is presently titled "Through the Storm", photographed below. It embodies the long, caring hours I spent with my horses while growing up. Anyone who has shared their life with a horse knows the intimate silence such a relationship offers and how that bond deepens over time.
I’m still working through a few compositional refinements, but I’m very pleased with the piece so far. The piece is presently available for pre-order here. 

Joy is more than a mere feeling, it is the state of being in which one chooses to live. It enraptures the very heart and mind while encompassing the soul to joyfully peer out of the ordinary and into an extraordinary experience.

I am on a mission to bring the good found in the natural world to the youngest of artists. Whether that means young in experience or young in age, joyfully sculpting is an invitation to kindly draw you into a world of peacefully loving who you are as a person, while discovering the hidden joys of sculpting within your hands. Anyone can sculpt, YES! Anyone, but not everyone will be kind to themselves while they do. However, those who allow themselves to step into the abyss may experience something that touches the heart if you let it. 

The purpose of this blog is to bring an encouraging vibe to the artistic world for anyone who wants to sculpt or is already sculpting. I’ve been a sculptor and teacher for 20 years now and I’ve seen a lot over those two decades. The one I’ve run into the most is self-doubt and self-criticism. I get it, I do it too. Somehow that inner person doesn’t want to see success, so it nags about the imperfections and the shortcomings, while trying hard to bring it all to a hard stop. What do you find yourself reaching for in those moments? Your tools to press through and press on or your chocolate and coffee mug while you lean back and tell yourself you will pick it up again tomorrow. Or do you cling to a higher power that carries you through the toughest of times?

Everyone’s personal process is different. I personally need to give myself time and space to process the visuals that are in my mind. I can’t always just capture those beautiful and perfect ideas in clay. Sometimes pressing on is a sure way to literally destroy the work I’d put in hours and days before. Other times if I don’t press on I’ll lose the image and it might be gone forever. So I capture it in some way, shape or form. Sculpture takes time to visualize, evaluate adjust and confirm. How will it interact with the world? If I choose to bring it to fruition, how will others benefit? What do I want them to feel, and where do I want it experienced in the world? Will it be intended to interact with families around a table in a home? Does it belong in a garden? What am I trying to accomplish outside of myself that could bring a sliver of joy into this world?

I like to think of God the creator and how he pulled man out of the clay of the earth and breathed life into his nostrils. In a small way we mimic that all powerful moment as we pull an idea out of the clay and into the world. That sculpture, that one that you made, could never be created by anyone else. Why? Because no one has your vision, your mind’s eye, or your unique power to wield your experiences into images and pull them out of your inner self drawn from your personal and unique experiences.   

There is so much to sculpting and for me, the prospect of sending my work out and into the world is a force that moves me forward. An unfortunate result of self-doubt is letting artwork collect dust. Unless the work is sent forth into the world neither the artist nor the participant can benefit from the gifts of beauty captured in the art itself. One thing that I like to akin dust collected sculptures to the character Jacob Marley in the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickons, he is chained to his past, unable to change the world because of his business. What a sad existence for the work I create to be stuck in a closet, chained to the past without bringing some kind of joy to the beholder. Letting work go out into the world opens the door for renewal, change and above all an interaction with the work so tenderly created by your own hands. Bring it out into the open, allow the world to interact with your work even if that just means exhibiting it in the little shop down the street, or applying for a small local exhibition. Sometimes the small shows are the most meaningful, because they come in contact with our everyday lives. We can meet the individuals and hear their thoughts about the work. It can be so inspiring to step back and just observe how an audience interacts with the sculpture. These can be the beginning of greater opportunities to share, inspire and be inspired. I encourage anyone wanting to or who is already creating art to create works that bring joy to the people in your life.