Sustainability 

As an artist working in the 21st century, I feel it vitally important to acknowledge the environment and the toll that my profession has on natural resources. Along with this acknowledgment, I seek to work in the most sustainable ways that I can and sometimes this translates into creating new ways of working. Weather permitting, I will work outdoors to save on electric fossil fuel energy. Some pieces are up to 95% where only the glue and screws are purchased new.

The basis for many of my pieces begin with finding discarded wood and taking them back to my house to be milled and sanded to usable, up-cycled lumber. Typically, I will use old books from garage sales or thrift stores or put out calls for maps and other ready to be discarded materials to use for my collages.

The City of Austin Hazardous Household waste has a program headed by Scott Johnson that collects and redistributes artist grade paints, gesso, varnishes, and other artist supplies. I almost exclusively use these paints. It is with no small thanks to Scott Johnson and the city of Austin that I am able to keep such a high up-cycled content in my work and it is my hope that programs like this continue to flourish. It is my dream to someday go full solar-powered in my studio and explore and pioneer new ways to up-cycle and bring these methods to greater numbers of artists.