I make art from wood because trees and the forests that wood comes from have been integral in my life. I grew up in forests, have spent my career working in forests, and I return to forests for well-being, inspiration, and recreation. I gravitated to the wood lathe because I enjoy its free creative process; imagining a shape, searching out a log with appropriate grain and figure, sawing from it a blank, trimming at the saw, mounting on the lathe... and performing the meditative work of realizing (freeing, actually) the form that already lives within.
This all boils down to exercising my appreciation for art and how it can influence people. Art can inspire, uplift, and buoy your thoughts away from the day's cares. I suppose I could turn bowls and give them away or throw them into the woodstove (and several early ones went there). But I want to be a part of this- a supply-side participant in the appreciation of ART, to do my best to contribute something of beauty, and this is the reason for my work.