Q: What medium is this?
A: All of my works are bronze castings.
My bonsai trees begin as clay sculptures and utilizing the lost wax casting process are completed in bronze. The bonsai pots start out as my own fired pieces and are casted separately, later joining the tree portion. Coral is treated with a simular process but more directly; from original coral skeleton, to mold, to wax casting, to investment mold and lastly to bronze. I go to great lengths to leave zero trace of my craft with the result being nearly exact replicas of the coral skeletons. The current coral pictures are castings in wax (hence the green color) and were all taken immediately after the demold.
Q: Are you open to commissions?
A: Bronze is expensive. Part of working with bronze is to accept that much time, money and effort has to be invested with only a few seconds of the actual pour determining the results. So there really is a lot at stake each time something is casted. I would like to move forward with smaller and larger bonsai arrangments including natural rock forest scapes as well as casting single exceptional coral colonies and small and large reef compositions. I might be able to take on this work outside of the gallery system, however a true path forward is to gain representation with an established gallery so that I might be able to take on a steady flow of commissioned work. It would also be nice if I could expand the purview of my work. With the knowledge that I now possess, I could explore all manner of exotic plants and flowers, insects, and mushrooms to name a few. These are like different kingdoms to me. What also might be strange for me to express is that changing the actual texture of casted bronze excites me. As weird as it may sound, I've already made some headway into making molds of moss. It is true that making bronze look like another material is not new. There already exists work that captures the color and texture of leather, wood, stone, concrete etc. but from my perspective those accomplishments are not entirely difficult. I dream of fuzzy bronze.. hairy bronze.. bronze that looks soft.. now that would be wild!
Q: Is anything for sale?
A: I invite indications of interest. It is best to contact me by text or email.
