I frequently use animal bones in my work. It’s not that I have a ghoulish point of view nor is it, strictly speaking, a fascination with death. It’s more about the continuing internal conversation I have with not wanting to take the world for granted. In that way my art reminds me not to take life for granted.
Beyond this philosophical context, bones are simply beautiful. They marry form and function that literally lies just below the surface. Honed by the ages, these forms speak of a kind of trial and error to continually perfect a form—not unlike my efforts to perfect a Foundling.
And like the never-ending process of perfecting a form by nature, my work also seems never-ending as I am always trying to perfect a piece. I will never get there as there is really no such thing as perfection but along the way I learn more about the beauty of imperfections (another reoccurring theme of mine). I learn more about what is beautiful to me and how things that in the past I might have ignored or even been mildly repulsed by, I now see the beauty. I see how these bones now unlock a pathway to seeing more broadly. For that I am grateful.