Volume 20. Works of 3-D Form
This book presents fifty years of practice in wood sculpture, ceramics, and domestic architecture by the same author whose academic eLibrary addresses computer-supported collaborative learning and the philosophy of knowledge. The volume makes visible an artistic life that ran in parallel with—and was philosophically continuous with—the academic career.
The seven chapters divide into three registers. Chapters 1–3 are documentary: they present the works themselves—wood sculptures, ceramic series, houses, and furniture—in chronological order with materials, dimensions, and brief conceptual notes. Chapters 4–5 are philosophical: they articulate the ideas that give the practice its coherence, centering on the contrast between mass-produced geometric form and the organic, flowing forms of nature, and on the sculptural creation of negative space as a medium in its own right. Chapter 6 is technical: it explains the tools and methods that realize these ideas in wood, and shows how aesthetic aims, material properties, and practical constraints are resolved together. The closing catalog (chapter 7) provides the complete archival record that frames the whole.
The strongest thread connecting all seven chapters is the concept of opening up form. Beginning with the untouched log of the first wood sculpture and ending with the complex interpenetrating positive and negative spaces of Return of the Osprey and Mrs. Mayo, the book traces a sustained fifty-year inquiry into how space—rather than material—can become the primary medium of a three-dimensional work.
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Sculpture: 3-D Form from Wood
Chapter 1: Sculpture: 3-D Form from Wood
This chapter presents the author's wood sculptures in chronological order from the first piece in 1976 through major works completed in 2025. Each entry notes the wood species, location, year, and a brief account of the conceptual or philosophical impulse behind the piece. Early works such as Gelassenheit followed the natural character of the log without opening it up; later pieces—Twisted Sister, Owl of Minerva, Hermaphrodite—progressively introduced negative spaces between or through their forms. The chapter culminates with the large complex pieces of the Chatham years, including Spirit of Cape Cod, Return of the Osprey, and Angel of Progress, reflecting a mature integration of positive and negative form.
Ceramics: 3-D Form from Clay
This chapter documents the author's ceramic work across seven distinct series: Paleolithic and Prehistoric Figures, Pre-Columbian Figures, Giacometti Studies, Negative Structures, Figurative Modeling, Facial Portraits, and Sea Forms. A central method is the reproduction and study of historical masterworks—prehistoric Venus figures (Hohle Fels, Willendorf, Dolní Věstonice), Cycladic and pre-Columbian sculptures, and works by modern masters—as a way of learning three-dimensional form through direct making. The chapter reflects on the significance of the earliest known human sculptures, arguing that Paleolithic Venus figurines imply widespread, multi-generational communities of skilled makers engaged in cross-cultural communication.
Architecture: 3-D Form for Living
This chapter extends the book's concern with three-dimensional form into the domestic realm, presenting three homes the author designed or significantly shaped: a Southwest-style house in Niwot, Colorado, designed in collaboration with an architect using principles from Christopher Alexander's pattern language; a renovated row house in Philadelphia; and a purpose-built house in Chatham, Massachusetts, planned with three- dimensional modeling software. The chapter also catalogs furniture and built-in fixtures made by hand—benches, tables, a mantel, shelving—in cherry, red oak, mahogany, and pine, showing how the formal sensibility developed in sculpture and ceramics extends continuously into the design of living spaces and everyday objects.
Reflections: Philosophy of 3-D Form
This is the philosophical core of the volume, tracing the ideas that animate the author's practice across all three-dimensional media. Drawing on Heidegger, Hegel, Nietzsche, Benjamin, and Wittgenstein, the chapter argues that sculpture—in contrast to mass-produced manufactured objects— makes the world visible and tangible by confronting the viewer with a formed material artifact that points to itself rather than away to some external subject. Key themes include: the contrast between organic form (flowing, unique, evolved) and manufactured form (flat, geometric, standardized); the sculptural creation of negative space and how Wittgenstein's notion of "seeing as" applies to alternating perception of positive and negative form; the relevance of biomorphic abstraction and Cubism; and the method of studying prehistoric and modern masterworks through reproduction.
Space: Opening Up 3-D Form
This short focused essay develops the concept of negative space as the primary spatial concern of the author's sculptural practice. It traces the evolution of that concern from the first wood sculpture (which opened nothing) through pieces that progressively introduced, enlarged, and integrated openings, culminating in works where positive and negative forms carry equal weight and flow continuously into each other. The essay applies Wittgenstein's "seeing as" to explain how a viewer can shift attention between the material form and the space it encloses, and discusses Barbara Heppenworth and Henry Moore as predecessors who first pursued this integration systematically. The chapter links directly to the philosophical arguments of chapter 4 and the technical account in
Practice: Sculpting 3-D Form in Wood
This chapter provides a detailed account of the author's tools, materials, and working methods. The core hand tools—a large gouge, mallet, and Sureform rasp—have been in continuous use since the first sculpture; electric tools (chainsaw, drill, belt sander, router) were added later for roughing in larger pieces. The chapter describes the central role of clay maquettes in planning complex works, stressing the human mind's inability to reliably imagine three-dimensional form without a physical model. Extended accounts of creating Mrs. Mayo (from a freshly felled green log, where opening the wood prevented cracking as it dried) and the Philadelphia oak set show how technical, aesthetic, and material constraints are resolved together rather than sequentially.
Catalog: Chronology of Works in 3-D Form
This closing chapter is a complete chronological catalog of all the author's three-dimensional works, beginning with ceramic pieces made in Frankfurt in 1970 and running through recent Chatham sculptures. Each entry records the title, medium, location, year, dimensions in height- width-depth format, and notes on conceptual influences, recipients of gifts, or exhibition history. Materials span fired clay, plaster, black walnut, cherry, redwood, cottonwood, white oak, Colorado alabaster, hickory, sandstone, and English plane tree. Exhibition venues include the Cotuit Center for the Arts and the Creative Arts Center in Chatham. The catalog serves as a comprehensive bibliographic record of approximately fifty years of practice across four states and two countries.