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For over 20 years, I have been creating functional art forms (typically lamps, clocks, and light sculptures) from industrial objects made of metal. This originally started from a strong affinity for old broken down musical instuments, their inherent beauty and grace. My original goal was to give these instruments a "second life", to re-establish their functional status as "living" objects by transforming them into something new, something that was not originally intended. For example, a lamp might be created by attaching a clarinet to a base at the bottom, and a glass at the top, and running a wire through it. The result regularly triggered people to take a second look with puzzlement or curiosity, a sensibility that was often transformed to amusement when they figured out what was "going on". Eventually, my designs evolved as I started combining musical instruments with other recycled household or industrial materials. This resulted in more interesting and original art forms. The kinds of objects that might be combined includes fireplace pots, heat reflectors, balance scale trays, faucets, spigots, spoons, metal wheels, and binoculars, to name only a few. There is a wealth of these sorts of objects in France, and living in Grenoble since 1997 has greatly augmented my artistic vision and its result. While remaining functional in design, my more recent work (since 2004) would more appropriately be described as "metal assemblage light sculptures", even though wooden objects (example: violins), and paper (example: musical scores and handwritten contracts), are also incorporated in my work from time to time. This approach focuses on the arrangement and transformation of form, integrated with the "exploitation" of light. This later notion means that light can be filtered, mirrored, shadowed, reflected, directed, and focused. In this sense, light can be manipulated, just as form can, within the context of the overall composition.
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