This group of work has been directly inspired by the work of Judy Chicago, Joan Miro, and, Alberto Giacometti. I find Chicago’s work to be personal in terms of her portraiture but also representative of larger communities and identities. Miro’s work interests me in its excellence of personifying abstract form to provide figural gesture. And Giacommetti continues the art of elongation like no other artist, so I owe him that practice. As we have more and more access to see what other artists are making, I find great inspiration in creating new versions of old forms using new combinations of methods and materials to result in forms that both honor the past and other artist's success but add to the visual dialogue they started. To make my work, I combine the use of power hammers, bondo freeforming, and severe drawing of steel implements whereas the above artists worked with ceramics and casting from clay. I enjoy the challenge and directness of acquiring gesture from the most durable and inflexible of materials (steel), which has the opposite quality of clay, a most sensitive, fragile and responsive medium. I am surrounded by great people and animals and they clearly have also inspired this group of work. Everyone needs a dog.