Artist Statement: BMF Jewelry

As a child I spent a lot of time mucking around a little swamp we had in our front yard, I loved the frogs, moss and slime. I learned to notice nature, I was a collector of shells and rocks. And I always had projects, I was a kid who went to woodworking camp and made beaded necklaces. 

When I was 12 my mother signed me up for my first jewelry class- they gave me hammers and torches and I was hooked. I got a degree in metalworking and built a business in Minneapolis with delicate saw work, twisted wires, and custom projects. What I have always loved most is making things. In my custom work letting someone else's idea set up the problem left me with my favorite part- figuring out how. My gallery work was meditation, processes so familiar and comfortable I'd get lost in them. Ten good years went by like this. 

Then I moved to a tiny town in the far North woods of Minnesota to think about my own ideas for a while. I find myself in a swamp again (technically, this time it's a bog), back to noticing the moss. I'm taking all that city and mixing it in with the details of the forest around me. 

My work has both my city time and my swamp time, architectural and natural.