It may seem odd to say, but I think with my hands. Like so many artists before me, that process begins with drawing. The drawing is a visual manifestation of a thought process. I suppose for most artists the drawing is either a finished product or a preparatory piece for another work. In my work however, it becomes the embellished surface of an object. I can’t really say that there is a conscious link, but I would very much liken this to the surface of pre-Columbian ruins or on mosques and Islamic buildings that I grew up around.

So I begin this process with drawing and thinking and thinking through drawing. As the surface accumulates embellishments I begin to develop thoughts of it as an object. Not a flat two-dimensional object with implied space but one with real volume that variously references the natural world or sometimes architecture. At this point the surface must move beyond itself and I begin to draw again but now with a different implement-a knife. Sometimes I cut until the surface can look as though it is shredded. Now the objects begin to take on real volume. The shredded pieces become the components with which I can assemble an object with real substantial form. They are building materials for something that will stand in the real world. The process is elaborate but the objects have a grace and simplicity that does not hide nor emphasize this undertaking.