I believe there is beauty all around us, especially in nature. But beauty and perfection are not always concurrent. It is the imperfections in the natural world that captivate me. Wood is a lasting vestige of the beauty of trees. But the knots, insect holes, and other flaws that contribute to variety and character are usually cut away. I select wood for beauty, figure, and the presence of natural voids in an aesthetically pleasing arrangement. To me, wood is like a painter’s canvas started by nature. The colors, grain, and figure are already there, as is the arrangement of natural voids. To accentuate these empty spaces, I inlay individual pieces of stone, shell, and native metal inside. I find patterns among the arrays of voids and create patterns within them, using the inlay materials like paints.