Artist Information

 

 

 

I grew up in Garden Grove and Tustin, California, after my family moved in 1961 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Following graduation from California Polytechnic University, San Louis Obispo in 1982 with a Bachelor of Architecture,  I studied Art and Architecture from 1981 to 1982 in Florence, Italy, at the California State University International Program. After  graduating college, I lived and worked in Rome, Jerusalem and San Francisco, during which time I studied art and specifically drawing with  pencils. In 1987, while on a trip to San Diego, I was offered work building a house, and then work drawing for an architect, so I extended my stay again.  I then met my future wife, Dijana, and we had two children, Nadia and Audrey.  I have happily stayed in San Diego ever since.  

 

We are currently living on a 7,000 square foot urban piece of land, with a small dog.  The lot contains our home, metal and wood shops, a drawing studio, a guest house, and our vegetable garden and orchard. We have enough fruit trees (33) and berry vines (12) to provide our family (and some friends, sometimes) with fruit year round.   Tending the trees, vines and garden for the past 20 years has led me to an understanding of what it means to take care of the land, and at the same time, it has helped me to further develop my work.

 

 

                                                                                   

I began creating sculpture in college, when I won a competition to design and build a structure  for Poly Royal. The sculpture, a giant fish head, located on the roof of the architecture building, became a symbol for the campus-wide event. Continuing my artistic approach to my studies, in 1982 I created a series of abstract pencil drawings on paper for my senior project.  In 1983, after moving to San Francisco, I began creating objects out of sprinkler pipe and sprinkler accessories, leading to my first professional sculpture of sprinkler pipes and fittings. 

                                                                            

 

  

From 1983 to 1990, I worked on a series of mosaic drawings, which evolved into my first solo gallery show.  In 1990 the resulting drawings and furniture were exhibited at the Faith Nightengale Gallery and at a Young Architects exhibit in San Diego.

 

 

  

 

Developing  a hands-on approach to architecture, I found myself spending as much time in my wood and metal shop, as I did in the studio. Building furniture, gallery and museum exhibits and installations for clients began to occupy more and more of my time. Projects included displays, furniture, cabinets, spice racks, cabinet pulls, guardrails, doors, door knobs and site specific sculpture. During this time I also designed and built exhibits for the Children’s Museum, Museo De Los Ninos of San Diego. 

 

 

 

I was asked in 1999 to create a series of artistic humidors (cigar boxes) out of wood and metal.  This led to explorations of three dimensional forms made of scrap wood and metal.  At  the same time I took a trip to Baja California and found the Santa Caterina Indians burning manzanita wood to fire their pottery. I negotiated a trade of all the food I had in my car in return for their manzanita. (I later returned with wood cut-offs from construction sites to replace their pottery firing-wood). This was the start of my use of branches and burls in my sculpture, evolved into  creating abstract sculptures in wood and metal. Since then my art work has evolved to a point where I use mostly scraps of wood and metal. Except for larger commissions, my artwork has consisted of mostly scraps of wood and metal.  I have been creating, exhibiting and selling my art for over 20 years.