Art

A moment in the outdoors captivates, inspires, and refreshes.

As an artist, I spend hours rendering and recreating fleeting ephemeral moments for a large and sometimes anonymous audience to experience while wandering into a gallery, clicking through my website, or scrolling through social media.

As a guide and outdoor trip leader, I share a grander sum of moments over the course of a day or two with a smaller corporeal audience while drifting down a river, treading up a mountain, or gliding through the snow.

But what I really aim to accomplish—whether it is through a moment mediated by inanimate materials spotlighted by artificial light and retransmitted through a screen, or through a weekend trekking about the landscape beneath the radiant sun—is to inspire individuals to seek out firsthand experiences of their own, as an audience of one in a world full of moments.

Wood

I find something special in picturing a specific mountain mahogany snag weathering above the river canyon every time I chop some vegetables with a knife handle carved from this dense wood, knowing that the bed I sleep in is made from a large elm tree that stood outside my childhood bedroom window, and sitting at a live-edge walnut desk made from boards that my grandfather milled before I was born.

Biography

I paint, draw, sculpt, print, build and make in whatever method best transmits an experience and story. However, I would be the first to admit that my work—no matter the medium, dedication, or inspiration—cannot capture and render an experience as expansive, multi-sensory, and ephemeral as a moment in the outdoors.

So why do I try? I try for the prospect that I may incite some viewers to go and explore the natural world for themselves.

I completed my MFA in Studio Art at the University of Idaho in 2020.

My business, Canyon Glen Board & Build, is aimed at giving a fallen tree a second life as a cherished object anhelping fellow makers source local boards sustainably.

When I'm not in the shop or studio I'm often behind the oars of a raft admiring Mountain Mahogony and Hackberry or exploring forested ridgelines on foot and sleeping beneath towering Ponderosa pines.

I had an active upbringing in the serene landscape of the Salmon River in Central Idaho. A childhood spent exploring jutting mountain ranges, rugged glacial lakes, and winding river canyons—on foot and at the oars of a raft—continues to drive who I am as an individual and artist. My inspiration comes from the past, present, and future of the grand landscapes and trees of Idaho and the greater Northwest.