My sculptures explore and illustrate the parallels and interactions between these two worlds. Tree limbs—a material I use in many of my sculptures—illustrate this schism. I combine natural, organic materials such as wood with manufactured to create new hybrids.

Many pieces reference the human body to explore a variety of human emotions. Tree branches and trunks might be cut into discs and separated with blown pieces of glass to resemble a column of vertebrae, the natural sections of this structure being supported and augmented by manufactured glass-like prosthetics. In other pieces, steel supports will contain and extend the organic wooden components of the structures, in much the same way that braces or crutches support and stabilize human limbs.

Some of my finished artworks also acquire the form and function of tools. Tools are essential for a complete discussion about the process of making sculpture. They are the extensions of the human hand through which materials are manipulated and shaped, and they are the vehicles through which information can be unearthed. The tools we apply to nature—to contain it, shape it, understand it and categorize it—also have a profound affect upon it. It is this impetus to measure, understand, contain and manipulate nature that I enact through my work.