The beauty of wood has always attracted me. In 1971 I saw the black walnut trees that used to border the fruit orchards in Santa Clara valley being torn out, piled up and burned, to clear the land for buildings. I got a chainsaw and raided the piles of tree stumps and cut as much wood as I could save before the stumps were burned. The walnut slab in “Corner Slice” is one of those rescued pieces of wood. The chainsaw marks are left to indicate the scaring of the land by development. Change is inevitable, but to cover up one of the best agricultural valleys with buildings seems wrong. The oak log base on this sculpture is from a firewood pile and the oak I-beams are made from boards. Each I-beam was custom made to fit into this sculpture. Each I-beam has 10 thin pieces of wood that are steam bent, dried, glued together and hand sanded. The I-beams are always bent to symbolize the difference between how we think things should be and how they actually turn out.
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