Through My Eyes

Biography

A Chicago native, I grew up in a family of accomplished artists and musicians.

My life-time interest in playing improvisatory music began when I was 6 years old.   Interest in photography and sculpture followed when I was a teenager.  Parallel interest in science took me to college and eventually graduate school and postdoctoral work in the neuro-sciences.  When I began teaching at Grand Valley State University in 1971, I combined several of my interests and started making anatomical models of the brain to use in my classes.  Eventually, my interest in model building widened to include the skeletal system, heads, the human body, and animal figures.  Eventually, I added painting to the approaches with which I work.

Today, I continue to sculpt and paint, as well as play in my jazz trio, on a regular basis.  My anatomical sculptures reside in various public and private collections in the United States and overseas.  My paintings and sculptures have been shown in many galleries in the midwest, including some in Chicago, and have found their way into private collections.  I remain interested in the creative process in the visual arts and music, including the intersection of the plastic arts and music.

Artist’s Statement

I have been interested in creating music and both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art, since boyhood.  I am also what is called in contemporary parlance a “maker”.  I have a continued need to make things that can be seen, or heard.  I lived with my family in rural Wisconsin for three years when I was a pre-teen.  The countryside left in me an enduring interest in natural forms and the changing moods of light.  All of my sculpture, painting and music continues to evolve toward better understanding of the creative process.

The sculpture and painting in this show can roughly be divided into three thematic groupings:

Varieties of human form

Nonhuman natural form

Spiritual form

Somehow, “through my eyes” they are all of a piece.