"High art and low culture need each other to renew their vitality--without each to enhance the other, both would full flat."Donald Kuspit, American Ceramics, Jan/Feb 1999I have an immigrant's fascination with America. After my family emigrated toSeattle from Holland when I was 14, I began driving throughout the West, camera inhand, documenting an unfamiliar yet vibrant culture made up of billboards, vernaculararchitecture, and decorated yards. Over time, I became increasingly fascinated withpopular culture: larger-than-life advertising figures, neon signs, postcards, and travelsouvenirs. Ultimately (after art and architecture studies at the University of Washingtonand graduate school at Mills College), these experiences became sources for mysculpture.Although my training was primarily in the area of painting, I began adding foundobjects to my work while in graduate school. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, I alsoadded neon and handcrafted objects and the work became narrative and oftenautobiographical. Many of the sculptures were made in response to personal experiences(like a major flood that inundated our house and studios in the late 1970') and eventuallyI began to look back on my boyhood and our emigration to the US. The sculptures aboutgrowing up during World War II are a prime example of the personal sources for much ofmy work.In recent years, I have worked on several different series. Domestic Neonincludes sculptures about my travels, experiences as a husband and father and life in theWest (some are about the rapid urbanization of our region). When I Was A Boy is a seriesabout growing up during World War II and the many young victims from my elementaryschool who died during the Holocaust. The most recent work, Sort Stories, emergedlargely as an antidote to the sad and serious nature of the theme of war.