BIO


I grew up in New York City, and lived in California and Toronto before moving to Halifax with my wife and children in 1988. I received my art training in the late 1960s at Antioch College and the New York Studio School. I am particularly grateful to the Studio School for providing a vibrant, creative environment in the context of a firm grounding in artistic tradition. After working in various two and three dimensional media over the years, at the turn of the millennium I felt increasingly drawn to clay – and in 2008 began an intensive four-year study/exploration of ceramics at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design.

In 2010 I started putting my ceramic sculptures up on the wall, which seemed to enable them to more readily elude the heaviness of gravity and embody a lightness of being. They evolved to combine linear extrusions and thin slabs, fired and glazed separately and then attached with epoxy. I found that this process facilitated the creation of open forms that actively engage with the surrounding space.

More recently I have returned to free-standing sculpture. I am particularly interested in making things that have a place in the natural world, that embody organic gestures of growth and decay, pushing and pulling, holding and releasing.

Each piece is a journey. It starts with an overall idea and then evolves in unforeseen ways, as relationships develop between disparate and seemingly random elements and ultimately there is a feeling of necessity. In searching for the beauty that embraces awkwardness – the harmony within dissonance – I look for a spacious visceral energy that can stop one’s mind in a moment of pure awareness.

CV


Education

1964-69

Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio,
B.A., Major in Studio Art

1968-69

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, NY, NY
Studied sculpture with George Spaventa and David Hare

2008-12

Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Visual Arts Certificate in Ceramics

Solo Exhibitions

2012

Sudden Recognition of Random Certainty, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia

2012

Primordial Coincidence: Recent Wall Pieces, Swoon Fine Art, Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022

Unified Earth, Grace Jollymore Joyce Arts Centre, Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. Juried show of ceramics and related art.

2019

Alumni Invitational, New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, NYC.

2017

Nova Scotia Art Bank 2017 Acquisitions, Inverness County Centre for the Arts, Inverness, Nova Scotia

2015

Alumni Exhibition, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia

2015

Nova Scotia Art Bank 2015 Acquisitions, ARTsPLACE Gallery, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia (see below).

2013

Modus Operandi, Ground Arts, New York, NY. Three-person show for winners of Ground Arts Summer 2012 Competition (see below).

Public Art

2022

Diversity. in collaboration with Christian Toth. Wall sculpture installed permanently in St. Andrews Community Centre, commissioned by Halifax Regional Municapility.

2022

Pushing Through, sculpture installed in Historic Gardens, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

2017

Nova Scotia Art Bank, purchase of What's Happening

2016

Nova Scotia Art Bank, purchase of Brief Encounter.

2015

Nova Scotia Art Bank, purchase of Banisweevy. Funded by the Province of Nova Scotia, the Art Bank acquires art for public display. Selection is made by a jury of prominent Nova Scotia artists.

Recognition

2012

Second prize, Ground Arts Summer 2012 Competition. An international competition sponsored by Ground Arts, a non-profit NYC-based arts organization, open to artists of all disciplines, juried by New York Arts Magazine executive editor Jason Stopa. The three winners of this competition were then showcased in an exhibition in the organization’s gallery in Chelsea, NYC in 2013 (see above).

Professional Service

2018-19

Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, member of Board of Governors

2017

Arts Nova Scotia, member of peer review committee for grants to individual artists.