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After losing my studio in Sarasota to an all-consuming fire on July 4, 1995, while I was away on Cape Cod, I felt devastated and ruined. I had several deadlines and commitments to show new work throughout the summer, not to mention my life’s plan had just changed radically. I had only been in that space since the previous October and I was making slow but steady progress in renovating into a dream come true.
I had lost most everything, including the past 10 years of work and had little sculpture from which to choose around my studio in Truro. I flew back to Sarasota to assess the damage and to see for myself what could be saved. There was nothing there but a huge pile of rubble. I flew back to Boston with no sculpture pieces and little hope.
On the plane back, I drew sketches of a new building and I continued to draw images of what I expected my new work place to be. All the while I kept drawing upon the images of my surroundings in Truro, a very familiar image which I have painted and drawn for many years. I then started to work with some different materials that I had been used to using, recovering these materials from the local dumpsite. I found that I could to process my aesthetic through these new materials. I produced new work that looked a little like my old work but it was fresh and it changed somewhat. Although the materials were new, one could certainly tell that I had done more than touched these new sculptures. Over the summer, I contemplated my life’s work, knowing little had been salvaged from the studio. I drew images of how the fire had affected my life. I felt lonelier than I had ever felt in my entire life.
I came back to Sarasota with several deadlines for shows and I had no studio, no materials, and little time to produce sculpture. I made several trips to what had been my studio. All of the concrete and wood and steel was in a hovel, but beneath the mass of junk was still the spirit of my work. Hadn’t I always said I worked from the offal of industry, other people’s trash? Now I would just have to turn my trash heap into new work. What better source for materials? I began by building maquettes and, by December, I had several new models for the sculpture. Again, I looked to the images that I produced during the first several months after the fire.
With the help of a few friends and studio assistants and the use of other artists’ studio space, I produced the first of what would be an installation of several sculptures. Although the new works are more like houses than amulets, they reflect what I see as a common denominator of my life, namely, my surroundings from place to place, Florida’s small town to Cape Cod. There are still elements of my philosophy of reuse and salvaging attitude to be found in these pieces.
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