At Thanksgiving dinner, 2002, my folks asked, “So, how are things, in Atlanta?”, I paused, and responded, “I’m little bored.” A couple weeks later, right before Christmas, my mom was diagnosed with a fast growing cancer, and my house burnt to the ground from an electrical fire. My Insurance company dragged it’s feet at ever turn, my rage was out of control, I certainly was NOT bored anymore, and had revenge on my mind. A great friend and fellow band mate, Jimbo, showed up with a set of carving tools, a six pack of beer, and said, “let’s create some art.”
Next thing I knew, we were carving Hawaiian styled tikis and venting my rage into logs with a mallet and chisel. I fell in love with carving. We started carving scary faces in hollow logs, much like you would a Jack-a Lantern. We tried filling them with candles, lights, and then tried PROPANE! YEA BABY, propane in mass quantities, and 10 foot high flames jumping out of scary tiki faces, that’s what fun people want to dance around. The next thing I knew, we were creating fire sculptures for parties and festivals, and it helped distract me from the evil insurance company and mom’s painful fight for her life.
I was lucky to find this outlet, and started channeling my rage, sorrow, and spirit back to a positive place through sculpture. I am forever grateful, to all my friends and family that helped me through those difficult times.
This picture is of my very first sculpture, I title it the Release, and burned it at one of the 1st TransformUs gatherings.
I will never say, “I’m bored”, ever again.