MacFarlane Coat of Arms

Artist's Background:

               Born on July 7, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan.  Attended a private university and received a B.A. degree in 1987.  Married to Leanne in July of 1984, and have four daughters - Bethany (1985), Anne (1987), Michelle (1989), Angela (1992) .   I began my life as a artist in 1988 by turning wooden bowls, mostly out of burls.  I didn't receive any training in woodturning, but through a constant striving for improvement, I was able to keep pushing myself to make better and better pieces  (That is the best school, hard work and hard knocks).  I started experimenting with soapstone and alabaster in 1996 at the request of a quarry owner who wanted me to make him a few pieces out of stone that he had.  I was really taken in by the beauty of the stone and slowly made the transition to working with stone full time.  At that time, I also started to explore sculptural forms - first with clay, then soapstone, and finally alabaster and marble. In January of 2000, I was honored to receive an Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.   In 2003, I participated in the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy. (Learn more at www.artestudio.net)

Artist's Statement:

“Art is the creation of shapes and forms that project the artist’s personality and ideological concepts.  Through imagination, the artist expresses his very being into a plastic language.   Using alabaster and exotic woods,  I seek to expose nature’s inherent beauty to enhance or even become the focal point of my work.  This ideal blending of human imagination with nature truly allows me to have infinite possibilities. Alabaster is an amazingly beautiful material that comes in a wide variety of colors and unusual veining.   From this wonderful media, I turn bowls and hollow vessels on the lathe.  One of the most astonishing qualities of alabaster is its translucency.  Therefore, I shape my work in elegantly graceful lines to allow the beauty of the stone to shine through.  This is best achieved with the simplest of forms. ”

                "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

                                                                                    J.W. von Goethe                                                              

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