Your textural sculptures and environmental installations appear tactile.  Do you encourage viewers to touch your pieces as part of their experience in understanding your artwork and its messages?

In some instances, yes, and some, no. I did, in the past, create an installation where the viewers were allowed to walk in the room and through the sculpture. It involved tons of sheet vinyl hung sheet by sheet from the ceiling in clusters. As the clusters grew in size a blue tint began to become visible.  I was able to control the shape of the bottom by varying the length of each piece, and, in the end, it looked like you were viewing an ethereal submerged iceberg underneath the water. I was very happy with their responses and they did very much enjoy being able to touch and interact with an installation in such a way. I am interested in creating more participant-like installations in the future.

You cite geological materials viewed from an electron microscope as a source of creative inspiration in your sculptures.  Do you recreate a microscopic world/s as life-size environments in your sculpture-rich installations?

When I first started to use the electron microscope, I immediately became very excited and inspired because I had never been able to see something in that kind of way.  It really was where the inspiration for my body of work came from.  So, I used it as a tool to gain an understanding of the underlying structures of certain geological materials.  I then used the visual information to create the beginnings of possible life-size other-worldly environments.

You also create functional objects (vessels and boxes) made from natural materials such as wood, clay and copper.  Do you find it more of a challenge to work with man-made, synthetic materials than natural materials?  Which do you prefer to work with?

I think I prefer to work with a little of both in some instances. Those were just some other experiments in playing with form and being able to push even natural materials to their limits.  I am also especially interested in combining the two, for example wood and plastic, once again revisiting the idea of the natural vs. unnatural and seeing how the two interact visually with each other.