This is a series of metal-point drawings that I completed at the end of 2009. The metals used range from sterling silver to platinum, including bismuth, copper, 14 carat gold, fine silver, palladium and 24 carat gold.

Artist Statement:

I am attempting to peel back the layers of the unconscious, to come to a kind of resolution with the macro and micro world that is a part of us, to get to the deepest most essential elements. Throughout the universe, the planet, the immediate environment, the people we surround ourselves with, my body and the smallest particles of us all, these essential elements are present.

Each of these layers, from the incomprehensibly large to the infinitesimally small, are all interconnected, affected by how we treat our inner and outer environments and how we see these places; likewise how the environment, the universe, people and ourselves respond to each of these elements. I believe that the ways we treat our inner and outer selves echo how the earth is treated and that the universe is in turn responding to each of us as individuals and as a society. If I can find a universal truth encompassing these seemingly disparate entities, taking cues from the outside world, I hope to use them to answer questions residing in the inner world creating questions reflecting back to the outside world to have those questions answered in the smallest part of the universe and the largest part of myself.

I am exploring these ideas through a drawing medium prolific through the Renaissance, metal-point. Using the traditional metal of silver, as well as gold, bismuth, platinum and copper have additional important alchemical, symbolic, medicinal and healing meanings and properties. The square format, much like the circle is in many religions, philosophies and mythologies, an indicator of a sacred space, or temenos. This temenos is the foundation of my drawing, there are circles within that are circumambulated until the question, consciousness, layer is revealed.

A set of personal symbology and imagery has been created, and is constantly evolving, where explorations reflect explanations within, just as alchemists had been doing for centuries and Jung created the language that dissected foundations for the transformation within the duality of nature and ourselves. The initial imagery is derived from the environment around me, the surface is then covered in the essentials of the chosen place and time. This first step is the jumping off point to a more meditative and intuitive working method, whether the drawing itself is conscious or unconscious is dictated by the stage of the work and the intuitive sense of completion.