My materials are mostly found on the streets of San Francisco.  The rest are purchased or traded for at local salvage yards.  The tools I use consist mainly of a hammer, a rasp, some chisels, a drill and a band saw.  I am entirely self-taught, which has both it's advantages and disadvantages.  My studio is my garage, a space with no light or ventilation, where I can hear the tenants above me take a leak and the ceiling is actually two inches shorter than I am.  Somehow I think that comes across in my work.

CAVE CANEM

I don't actually have a dog of my own, just a cat who thinks he's a dog.  Dogs are very powerful symbols to me.  They are the first animals to be domesticated, they have the closest emotional bond to man, they were the first animals in outer space.  Their innocence makes them a great metaphor for the human soul, and if they are allowed to be themselves (with a little discipline), they grow into amazing creatures.  But they are too often tortured, abandoned, neglected, twisted and chained, making them cruel and vicious or simply causing them to wither and die.  The same can be said of ourselves, tied to material things, chained to negative emotions, caged in destructive desires.

TOTEMS

the totems are your basic post-apocalyptic idols, created to  un-named and forgotten gods, standing alone amidst the blasted landscape under a bloated, dying sun.