Artist Statement

It all started with a book of matches, many years ago.  Yes, a book of matches that invited me to copy a drawing and submit it for a possible scholarship for my possibilities as an artist.

Well, I took the challenge, and submitted it to the company.  Lo and behold I won the scholarship, but it was not a free one;  I had discovered that I had the ability to create art with a pen and pencil.

I had created several pieces and then began to work in a new medium “Wood” At first while driving my NYC taxi whenever I was at the airport or waiting on a taxi waiting line, I began created interesting pieces using the wood filler pieces from cigar boxes.

After a while I considered transferring some of the art that I had drawn onto pieces of wood.  Initially it was bar relief.  Then I was fortunate to meet T. Grace Atkinson, a renowned art critic.   T. Grace reviewed my accumulated works and said “You have Facility” What a let down!!!  I wanted to hear I had talent!

She explained that “Facility” meant that I could make my pen, Exacto Knives and other tools do what I set out to do, but I needed to create on a different plane! 

T. posed  questions (I honestly don’t remember what they were any more) and I had to answer them in my next piece.  Each question opened a new door to my creativity.

The one piece of advice, the one that really resonated with me was “you will never really grow in art until you realize that the subject of a piece is just that, the subject", and I would never really grow until I could see the whole piece and had the courage to invade the sanctity of that subject and make it a part of the whole.

I continued to evolve for a while, but when I changed careers and created an event business.  I had started a 10 Commandments; it was about 1/3 done when I had to set it aside, there was little time to work on my sculpting.  My event company, as much as I loved it, and creating nearly 20,000 memorable events, was a 24/7 commitment.

It was more than 40 years later, after I retired that I picked up the 10 Commandments and finally finished it.  I was again bitten by the bug and have created more than 100 pieces, many given as gifts, some were created as montages for families that ordered them.

Now I'm a member of East End Arts in Riverhead and I belong to a carvers club and attend sessions twice a week.  I enjoy spending 3-5 hours sculpting in wood almost every day.

I am happy to share that my retirement allows me to continue to focus my creative energies & that makes me a “Most Happy Fella”.