I was born in Brooklyn NY; in 1965 I married and moved to New Jersey. That first Christmas my wife bought me a book about wood carving, a subject I had been interested in since I was 8 years old. This interest was generated by a man who taught us kids to fish, shoot bow and arrow – and dream. Ken was always whittling as he told us stories of his youth.

As is often the case, there was never enough time or money to pursue this hobby as we raised a family. Family, work, college at nights, layoff from my job, my wife’s death, raising the children as a single parent, all served to bury the dream. Then one day in 1991 the kids were both having supper at friends houses and I was alone!  I realized I needed something more in my life. Although I had given up art in the fourth grade (real men don’t do art!) I remembered my dream and started to carve wood.  I’m basically a self-taught artist, although I’ve taken several weekend seminars with some of Americas best woodcarvers.

Each of my first 7 years of sculpting I entered a piece in the American Carving competition and have took first prize in my category. In my last show I was also honored to receive Third Best of Show.

My works are in private collections in the US, England and Japan. I also have some pieces in Corporate collections in Japan.

In recent years my interested has focused on the Masks that Mankind has used and currently uses. Man evolves, and seeks to express this change in different ways. We used to employ physical masks to satisfy some of this need. Civilized man made less use of physical masks but the trend of painting children’s faces at parties and the growing use of tattoos may mark its resurgence. Also, our belief in living creatures being able to change shape has never been greater, if we judge by the use of such images in movies, books, and plays.

I feel this ‘morphing’ applies to physical, emotional or mystical state and I try to show that in my work. My “Mermaid Morphying – Phase 4” shows a mermaid changing into human form. “Night Watch, morning of his first battle” shows the ‘mask’ of tension in a boy who will soon prove his right to be called a man. The piece “Lakota Medicine Man” shows a Native American who has already received his dream and become a healer in his tribe. His mask (a buffalo headdress) shows the spirit connection that enables him to funnel the Great Spirits power into the person to be healed.

I also create iconoclastic images to stimulate people to change even more, to break free of restrictive masks we created for each other; race, color, creed, sex, etc. In this way I hope to help mankind eliminate prejudices.