I view the gesture as an abstraction of the human form. When I am drawing, the figure is initially put down on the paper as a series of abstract marks, and from these marks, I allow the human form to emerge. In clay, the process is much the same. I allow the clay to “take shape”, never forcing the medium to become representations of bone and muscle. Rather, I am always searching for what animates the flesh and blood of the subject. I often rely on serendipity in conjunction with powers of observation.