35 Years: Forging Ahead with a Mouse and a Pond Skimmer

Spring here continues in all its glory. The trees are nearly leafed out, which means soon I’ll be able to stop skimming oak flowers out of the fish pond. Skimming them does no good for the many displaced cervical discs in my neck, but it’s so calming that I can’t resist. This is how I get in trouble working too!

In the many hours I’m not wielding a pond skimmer, I’m forging ahead with a mouse, a Mac mouse that is. I’ll be unveiling my 35th Anniversary Retrospective in stages throughout the summer with the print book available for pre-order (shipping in the fall). I’m so excited about the authors who are contributing essays about my work, but that’s all still secret for now!

I’ve selected around 100 pieces made from 1989 through 2024. If that sounds like a lot, it’s a mere fraction of the metalwork I’ve created, roughly 10% of it. Except for the mouse/neck pain, it’s been fun to dig deep into my archives and remember artwork that was snapped up by collectors decades ago.

Looking at the images, I can’t help unpacking all memories of what went into them and all that was going on in my world at the time I was creating them. Some of them I have lovingly, and metaphorically, folded back up and replaced in storage after a good, digital airing. Others are left out for later viewing. Selecting only the most pivotal pieces is intuitive, though perhaps not always easy.

There are a few years, like 2010 and 2017, that I created so many pivotal works that I was sure I must have recorded the dates wrong. Research proved the records correct, which I’m still finding mind-blowing. 2010 was a year I measured filigree filler wire in miles not feet. 2017 is a year from which I’m still recovering!

Enough teasing about what I’m not quite ready to reveal!

Meanwhile, here are a few of my reminiscences in metal, of which I’m exceptionally proud.