My Manifesto

(or why I do this)

I have always been a very visual person, and extremely creative. I am also a very optimistic person, and I think that shows through in the comical shapes that comprise my works. While negative spaces are nearly unavoidable in this style of work, I tend to utilize either ambient or artificial illumination to fill them.

The style or method that I have termed "Flugnod" was first utilized (unbeknownst to me when I began) by a Sculptor in the classic sense, Mico Kaufman. Besides Mr. Kaufman and myself, I know of no other artists who have extensively utilized molten plastic in their work. My involvement in plastics as a sculpting media began at a very early age. As a child growing up in a middle-class rural family with forced hot-air heating, I would melt the ends of crayons together over the hot air emanating from the heating system. As luck would have it, years later I gained employment in the plastics industry as an engineer in an Injection Molding factory. When machines were changed over from job-to-job, the remaining plastic in the machine had to be "purged" from the machine, and the resulting hot pile of plastic was known as a "flugnod". (Nope, I didn't make it up.) I eventually gained nearly unlimited access to the plastics processing equipment of my present employer, and was free to let my imagination (and very limited budget) run wild. The results are what you see here.

My artistic background spans many years, most of which were spent as a hobbyist. In primary school in Upstate New York, I was identified as being "gifted" (hey, anyone can have an active imagination!), and was prone to just sit for hours and draw. I was also prone to sit for hours and disassemble the small (and very costly at the time) electronic devices my parents would give me. When removed from the New York State educational system at the age of 12, I had to refocus my energies on social acceptance and physical abuse avoidance. The creative thing seemed to slip away from me for awhile, but eventually I found myself spending my study-periods either in the Art Room or Chemistry Lab (things that go boom). This is the cover of my High School Yearbook. That's me in the beret. And, until that picture was staged by the Yearbook director and Art Instructor, I had no clue I was considered the class "artist". Through college and my early working years, my artistic powers had refocused themselves on chemical and hormonal targets, but eventually resurfaced shortly after my first divorce. I had a lot of time on my hands, and began dabbling with computers and computer-generated (fractal) art. I had always considered the strange shapes that occurred when molten plastic solidified a more random pattern than fractals, and was drawn to the molten plastic form by it's ordered randomness. The ability to control the way the light-spaces are formed within the piece is of utmost importance, along with the placement of pigment transitions and how they effect the ambient/active light sources that the piece will be displayed within.

My creations are most likely considered abstract, as I allow the plastic to take the form that it wishes. My manipulation of the melt stream, and the mix and placement of both the static and fluid elements within the piece provide the desired effect. But, like anything I am a work in progress. Each time I sculpt, I find new ways to project my feelings and desires, so stay tuned...

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