Movie #1
"Jackalope" in action
816 K, Quicktime

Movie #2
Inner mechanics of "Jackalope"
2.23 MB, Quicktime

This commission was for woman who owns a graphic design firm in Kansas City. She had me recreate her logo into a three dimensional, mechanical form. As you crank the handle the jackalope jumps through the flaming hoop, turns around, and jumps back through, ad infinitum. The inside of the jackalope is completely carved out to cut down on the weight.

The working titled for this was "Rocket Ride." I carved out the inside of the rocket so I could fit in a mechanism and lead weight, which keeps the figure upright. Approximately 75 hours start to finish.

Sort of the second version of "Take Wing."

Movie #1
"Serenity" spinning
1.04 MB, Quicktime

I bought this beautiful antique European glass case and decided I wanted to make a figure supported only by her one ice skate twirling inside. Her skate blade is soldered to a metal rod that runs up inside her leg. She spins freely in either direction and has such a beautiful face.

Movie #1
"Rainmaker" in action
986 K, Quicktime

Movie #2
Close-up of "Rainmaker" in action
1.02 MB, Quicktime

Originally he was to be cranking a time machine, but it ended up looking more like a weather machine. My brother, who is a research meteorologist, loved it so much he bought it right out of my studio.

A commission request from a couple that has admired my work for years. (See also "The Visionary.")

New Direction - May 2005

I have so many ideas I want to explore that both my sketchbook and brain are overflowing. There just aren't enough hours in the day to bring all of these ideas to fruition. Over the past year I have been exploring the use of different mediums so that I can be more prolific.

In the past, carving two hands would take a whole afternoon. Instead of hand-carving heads and hands out of solid blocks of wood, I've decided to switch to polymer clay. The great thing about the clay is that I can quickly create heads and hands, bake them, let them cool, and then carve in the details.

I've also been exploring materials I haven't worked with before, one of which is fabric. Using fabric allows for greater and more natural movement in the figure. This and other "new" materials are what keep my work fresh and exciting.

Movie #1
"Noah" in action
1.71 MB, Quicktime

Movie #2
Close-up of "Noah" in action
2.37 MB, Quicktime

Another piece for the Noah’s Ark collector. When you crank the handle on the side, Noah raises his arm and the dove descends from the clouds to land perfectly in his hand, of course. (See also "Noah's Ark."

Movie #1
"Hope" in action
2.67 MB, Quicktime

This piece is inspired by the impervious resilience of children.

I could never do this dress out of wood. When you turn the crank she fans out her dress. (Sorry, no movie.) .

Movie #1
"Hand in Hand" moving
1.66 MB, Quicktime

Movie #2
Close-up of "Hand in Hand"
2.08 MB, Quicktime 

What could be better than a couple dancing hand in hand in perfect sync? The painting in back is based on a Paint-by-Numbers we have hanging in our home. The mechanism that controls the seven strings turned out to be more complicated than you'd think.

Movie #1
"The Visionary" in flight
2.06 MB, Quicktime

Movie #2
Close-up of "The Visionary"
2.29 MB, Quicktime  

I'm trying to make the narrative of this new work less specific, to enable a looser interpretation. When the crank is turned, he yanks down on the strings that raise the "wings." Weights placed in his forearms enable him to actually "pull" down on the strings.

Movie #1
"Take Wing" takes flight
1.58 MB, Quicktime

Movie #2
Close-up of "Take Wing"
2.44 MB, Quicktime  

This is the first piece completed in my new style. When you turn the handle she alternately raises and lowers her hands. The small wire cage was, at the same time, fun and challenging to make. Yes, all the clothes were sewn by me.

Movie #1
"Noah's Ark" is quite lively
1.09 MB, Quicktime

A man in Massachusetts who collects Noahs Arks commissioned this piece. When you crank the handle, all ten animals move in their own way — some up and down, some side to side, and some turn their heads back and forth. Lots of action here!

Movie #1
"Birth of Venus" in action
1.81 MB, Quicktime

Movie #2
Zoom in as "Birth of Venus" closes
1.54 MB, Quicktime 

This piece was definitely inspired by the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, specifically the scene borrowed from "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli. (If you haven’t seen this movie, you should.)

The shell required some labor-intensive carving and getting the mechanism to work correctly was a real challenge. As you turn the handle, the shell slowly opens to reveal the figure, then snaps shut after the 8th turn. Nice.

This tornado was for a man who saw my original in Kansas City and had recently moved to Atlanta. He commissioned this piece for his wife’s 40th birthday and as a memento of their time in the Midwest. He wrote the copy around the base, which testifies to the amount of tornados during the last 40 years.

Movie #1
"Mr. Man"
wide shot
1.26 MB, MPG

Movie #2
"Mr. Man"
close-up
916K, MPG

Movie #3
"Mr. Man"
wide shot of
inner workings
924K, MPG

Movie #4
"Mr. Man"
close-up of
inner workings
446K, MPG

Movie #5
"Mr. Man"
close-up of birdy
443K, MPG

For a long time I had this drawing in my sketchbook of a large head with movable eyes, mouth, etc., that is "powered" by weights. This is the largest face I've carved to date. During final assembly, after all carving, mechanisms and painting were finished, I thought I might have a problem with the weights because I didn't have a governor. I ran out of room for an internal governor, so I decided to make it crank operated instead, I think it turned out much better this way because the operator can regulate the speed.

Movie #1
"Bird Girl Revisted" wide view
465K, MPG

Movie #2
Close-up of girl
403K, MPG

Movie #3
Close-up of bird
468K, MPG

This piece is sort of Chapter 2 of the "Bird Girl" story. The writing on the side reads, "This girl I know, the one who had nursed many an injured bird back to health, always wondered when she saw a friendly bird fluttering in a tree, whether this little bird was one she had helped, and has now stopped by to say thank you.

My brother, who is an avid fly-fisherman, commissioned me to do a piece for him after seeing my work in Ann Arbor. I used what's called a Geneva Wheel inside, which enables the line to be pulled taut every 6th time the man yanks on the pole. I'm told that is a pretty good, if not unrealistic, ratio.

Movie #1
"Perpetual Motion,"
wide shot
916K, MPG

Movie #2
Close-up of "Perpetual Motion" gear
445K, MPG

After finishing the above two pieces I began thinking about gears and tooth design and meshing etc., and thought, "Why do teeth on gears have to be shaped the way the are? Why can't they be shaped like other things like figures, letters, etc.?" I drew out a gear with the word Perpetual Motion around the perimeter and made a gear that would mesh with it. I added the crank, which forwards the gear one letter at a time and thought to add a figure on top to point to each letter as it came around.

Same simple gear idea as "The Red Chair", with long linkages connecting the crank with the top mechanism. This piece was done just after 9/11 and subconsciously has reference to the people lost, but more consciously it illustrates the distance that can sometimes come between two people, or maybe it's just an interesting looking sculpture.

On this one I made the two chunky gears first. I've always avoided making my own gears because of the inherent problems with meshing, expansion due to humidity, and having to make them so darn precise. I thought to myself, "Why can't I make a couple of chunky gears and have them loosely mesh?" Once I made my gears I wanted to make a simple crank, which ended up not so simple. I had to add the yellow slider piece to keep the connecting rod at the same angle all the time or the mechanism would lock up. To go along with my other pieces, I carved a small figure doing a simple tip of the hat. Sort of like a Rube Goldberg machine.

Movie #1
"Tornado,"
wide shot
916K, MPG

Movie #2
Close-up of funnel
434K, MPG

In 2001 I was going to a show in Kansas City and I thought, "Kansas... tornadoes!" Again, I turned to my mini lathe. I had this great idea to make the tornado in 4 sections, spinning at different rates, and although it's not very apparent when it's spinning, I think it would've looked dumb if it were just one piece of wood. This piece came out almost exactly like the primitive sketch I did for it.

This is a narrative piece. About 20 years ago, my best girl Paula found a baby bird and nursed it back to health. The type around the box reads: "I know a girl who found a forlorn baby bird that had an injured leg. She took him in and tended to him for weeks. When the robin was well enough, and to insure he would not fly away before he was ready, she tied a string around his good leg, and gently "flew" him around her yard. When she was certain he was able, she set him free." The first thing I carved was the bird and once I figured out how to make the wings flap I knew this was going to be a great piece. I ran a very small cable through a very small tube that winds from the bird, down through the body, to a ratchet-type mechanism underneath the turntable. I also used a worm gear I found at the salvage yard to make it move. This was my second attempt a carving the female figure.

Movie #1
"Conductor,"
wide shot
923K, MPG

Movie #2
Close-up of conducting action
444K, MPG

At a show in Philadelphia, I got the grandiose idea of making a large, wall-mounted piece that is filled with multiple figures, (animals riding bikes, playing musical instruments, dancing; etc.) and I sketched a conductor as the center focal point. When I got home I began drawing and engineering. I thought I could use a 50 lbs. test braided fishing line run through small pulleys, operated by a crank. I came up with a way to join the line and made about 25 pulleys. The piece measured about 2' x 3'. After about 50 or so hours of trying to figure out this way-too-complicated mechanism, and before any figures were carved, I decided I was, in fact, insane, and cut down the piece to accommodate only one figure, the conductor. The challenge here was to make his arms move as random as possible. I will say I learned a lot from making this piece.