The properties of tin have attracted me for many years. I have a memory from about age five of trying to wheedle my mother out of the typewriter ribbon tin that she used for  her straight pins. Tin is light but strong, easily shaped, shiny and has a surface which can be printed on. Working with it is low tech, fairly clean and doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment. 

Hurricane Fran came to my house in 1996. After fixing the roof I had a big piece of leftover sheet metal and began to play with it. A friend saw what I was up to and told me of the John C. Campbell Folk School. There I took  Traditional Tinsmithing  with Harry Kruppenbach. Later I returned  for a class with Bobby Hansson called Tin Can Art. In 2013 as I was retiring from the practice of psychiatry I went to Pocosin Arts for Tin Can Collage with Robert Villamagna and returned there for Sustainable Jewelry with Bryan Petersen.

My tin play has led me to make collages, jewelry, ornaments, household objects, UFO’s, garden art  and a bunch of other stuff. I do keep coming back to collages, often of birds. Birds are beautiful, amazing creatures which seem to lend themselves to being rendered with tin. Sometimes I work from a sketch or pattern that I’ve made and sometimes I improvise.

I do some teaching now as well. I teach at ARTworksVass (in Vass,NC), Eno Arts Mill (in Hillsborough) and this October at Freehand Market (in Saxapahaw.) In the past I have taught at Pocosin Arts, Randolph Arts Guild, Hiddenite Arts&Cultural Center and in private homes.

Regular shows for me include the Alamance Arts Holiday Gift Invitational, the Saxapahaw Holiday Show and the Fearrington Folk Art Show. I have pieces in private collections from NC to MT to NH to NM and in the Small Museum of Folk Art in Pittsboro.

If my work brings you a smile I consider that a success.