Harrisburg, PA
My work is created from a deep observation of nature and its capacity to renew, adapt, and persist. I see nature as both my teacher and collaborator — a living source of forms, rhythms, and energies that constantly evolve. Each piece begins as an act of reconstruction: I build my own panels from ¼” poplar plywood, joining them together to create a surface that feels organic yet intentionally constructed. This building process mirrors the themes in my art — growth after deconstruction, balance after disruption.
Once the panels are assembled, I begin with pyrography — wood burning — using a freehand approach with no prior sketch. This allows intuition to lead. The tool becomes an extension of my hand, and the marks are permanent, unerasable. I embrace the unpredictability of fire, the way it transforms the surface, just as time and experience transform us. The burned lines form natural patterns that resemble roots, branches, or the flowing movement of wind and water. In the piece shown here, a twisting tree rises through the composition — not as a literal tree, but as a symbol of endurance, growth, and transformation.
After burning, I bring color into the work through vibrant acrylics. I use color not as decoration, but as emotion — a language of energy and atmosphere. The bright yellows, for instance, evoke light and vitality, offering contrast to the darker, burned wood tones. This juxtaposition between fire and brightness, between scar and renewal, becomes the emotional core of my work. It is about finding beauty within imperfection and hope within change.
I often incorporate natural materials such as real dried leaves collected from meaningful places, like Bryce Canyon, Utah. These fragments of nature connect the physical world with memory — they are traces of a moment, preserved within the artwork. Together, the burned lines, painted color, and embedded leaves become a visual metaphor for resilience: how life rebuilds itself, layer by layer, even after being scarred or changed.
My creative process is both meditative and physical. It demands patience, precision, and presence. Burning wood requires stillness, yet the colors that follow demand freedom. Through this combination, I aim to capture the duality that exists in both nature and human experience — calm and energy, fragility and strength, destruction and rebirth.
Ultimately, my work is about connection — between material and spirit, between nature and emotion, between what is lost and what is rebuilt. Each piece is a celebration of life’s cycles and a reminder of how light persists through transformation. By bringing together the rawness of wood, the permanence of fire, and the vibrancy of color, I strive to honor the beauty and resilience of nature, and to reflect the same in ourselves.
