I value the minutes, hours, weeks, and years spent in my woodworking studio in the process of making. I’ve trained myself through a lifetime of using tools to have a certain level of mastery. My hands, either holding or controlling tools, will do my bidding to the extent that I am satisfied with the results. A laundry list of basic concerns govern my craft: Notions of elegance, balance, fairness of curve, visual weight, negative space, heft, intersections and connections are in a constant parade of review as I work, all the while in a developed wary dance with sharp things that spin or reciprocate. In the matter of form versus function, once the needs of function are met, form can receive embellishment to elevate the item above and beyond ordinary. My marquetry compositions capture a visual representation of an idea, a memory, a moment, a personal truth, or revelation, often in the form of trompe l’oeil—in my case, realistic renderings which I’ve stylized or changed in some way. The human form and its ability to exhibit emotion, movement, gesture, and stance influence me no matter what I may be creating. In something as simple as a design that portrays a young radish plant holding its own in a strong breeze, I am looking for the energy of its resistance to the pressure and will equate that to the movements of a dancer. Sometimes I’ll include subtle implied references to my work that may have either something or nothing to do with the subject at hand. I’m a lifelong music lover and musician, and I consider my hand-built marquetry guitars part of a larger series, in which I’m hearkening back to the counterculture of the sixties and seventies and storytelling about the shared experience of a generation. There’s a long history in the embellishment of musical instruments, and I feel that in using the solid mahogany carved top double cutaway guitar as a canvas for my marquetry art, I’m adding to that lineage, and also giving the world the most authentic form of self expression that I can muster.