Coming from an architectural background I have been interested in history, its art and its craftsmanship. I am fascinated by the way in which certain objects or images provoke certain emotions, certain passions, certain memories.

“I choose ancient elements, motifs, patterns, and objects which fascinate me but which, for others, may go to make up their own story, their own meaning. I attempt to provide a framework for that in my work.”

With this philosophy in mind, the most recent highlights for me have been:
• My public sculptural piece “He Punga – the Anchor”, (weight 2.5 ton, Hinuera stone) installed on Omokoroa beach in 2019.
• Also in 2019, I was one of three artists chosen to make a presentation to the Tauranga City Council to produce a design for casting into the region’s manhole covers.
• In 2017, I was one of four artists selected to make submissions for Wellington’s “Four Plinths” sculptural exhibition next to Te Papa, where I chose a theme playing on positive and negative spaces within the context of works by three seminal Wellington artists.
• Between 2012 and 2014 I was artist-in-residence at Lightwave Gallery, helping also with the setting up of exhibitions and the running of the gallery.
• I have spent over 18 years participating in Matamata and Tauranga stone symposiums, as well as tutoring stone carving workshops during three of those events.

From my early days as a teenager working with silver through to more recent times working in stone, there have been two major influences in my creative journey. The first was the “Book of Kells”, an ancient illuminated manuscript now held in Ireland, and the other was my work experience in Bath, UK, where I worked with conservation architects on historic buildings. It was in this environment that I was infused with a sense of history… ancient history… and its associated mystery. Here I was also introduced to the wonderful carving qualities of Bath Stone, a limestone similar to our Oamaru Stone.

As in architecture I like to work to a theme, where history, context and meaning are the building blocks for what I create. I work with many types of stone and a variety of metals including silver, copper, bronze and steel.

I have a studio/workshop here in Pahoia, 20 minutes north of Tauranga.