“It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won’t stoop to pick up a penny.  But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.”
                                                              -Annie Dillard

When starting a sculpture or body of work I search for my pennies in unlikely places, trying to find the forgotten.  I view the disregarded as an opportunity to reuse materials, turning trash into something new and beautiful.  The majority of my sculptures have been created from recycled wood; often fusing found objects with woodworking.  Once I select what pennies to use I immediately jump to work, forming the shape and concept as I go. 

Beauty inspires me, often showing its face in unexpected places.  One disturbing yet strangely beautiful moment of inspiration occurred when I stumbled upon nature as it overtook industrial objects.  Cords intertwined with vines and roots, the earth was literally growing over the waste and submerging it below.  The combination of nature and trash had harmonious colors and fluid yet disparate materials that formed pleasing juxtapositions. My unsettling discovery showed me the beauty I could make reclaiming trash through art, simultaneously working towards a cleaner earth.