In our own way, each of us is an artisan. Our minds and our actions constantly create. Individually, we respond differently to our creative spark. My curiosity in what I am envisioning moves me. I consider myself an engineer of flights of fancy driven by kinetic curiosity. My pieces evolve from the art of observation and my wonderment at the bounty of the world around us.

I grew up in a commercial fishing village on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The people of that area always demonstrated a degree of pragmatic ingenuity. It's along the same lines as "necessity is the mother of invention." If they needed a "tool" for a specific task.... they made it with pieces from something once discarded, thereby, giving it a new purpose. Call their creations "on the spot inventions". To me, these inventions were pieces of art.

The idea of people or things finding a new "life" is appealing. Call it the "second chance syndrome". For example, to me a wine bottle is not a wine bottle, but a source of colored glass. True to my roots, I break in a home made glass crusher and filter through different size screens. This yields several grades of crushed glass that reflect light differently thereby creating distinctive hues. Glass once destined for the land fill becomes part of a flower, an unknown planet or, as in one commissioned piece..... Heaven. The glass gets a second chance.

Other materials I use are stone, metal, wood and copper. The stone may come from a river bed, the edge of a field, or from land cleared for development. I love the energy, beauty and timelessness of stone; each piece different from the next. The metal is created from mined ore and glass takes shape by fusing silicates. The versatility and amlleability of copper permits it to be hammered, cut and twisted to create the hands of God or the petals of a flower. It also reflects soft, appealing light. Thin copper wires create beautiful floral accents, a trail of a cosmic orb or the hair of an aging flower child.... my raw materials are gifts from Mother Earth.

The look and feel of my art has evolved from my rural upbringing where you are taught to appreciate the reflection of iridescent light from a fish scale, how feathers fit a wing, or the subtle movement and sway of marsh grasses. Where at night, you look up at the stars in the sacred dark and ponder the mysteries of life. My pieces evolve from my love of words, music and family. They evolve from what I have witnessed and the emotions I have felt. I refer to my inspiration as "The Art of Observation" which is one chapter in "The Art of Living." --J. Ross Lewis