My most recent and rewarding area of work has been large fabricated and drawn installations, like the sliding wood panels of “Changing Center” in VCA’s lobby. These installations are also the most challenging and time-consuming pieces I’ve worked on: 6 – 12 months is typical. They often stand in large, high-traffic entry spaces, so I feel my job is to try to stop people and make them ponder the story or history I’m presenting. Hopefully, they’ll want to return for another look, or better yet, bring a friend along. I’m interested in that narrow zone between the illusion of 2-dimensional drawing and 3-dimensional fabricated surfaces, between visual form and storytelling. The drawn part requires a great deal of research and time-consuming rendering; the structural fabrication takes a good deal of engineering and craftsmanship. The combination of all that thrills me, although each one of the large pieces more or less takes over our home, studio, and shop, until it installs. Juli has been very understanding and supportive when the house is taken over.

In creating “Changing Center,” my knowledge and feel for the history of Vashon Island multiplied a hundred-fold. Many thanks to Bruce Haulman for guiding me along this steep learning curve. I sense the island very differently now as I cycle about.