Dr. Spalting

I’m an associate professor of wood anatomy at Oregon State University and work within the field of art science as a bio artist. I’m invested in maintaining a balance in my work, striving to not be ‘just’ an artist or ‘just’ a scientist, but to blur the line between the two disciplines. Neither science nor art can exist without the other, and the intersection of the two disciplines–the substantial Venn diagram overlap, is critical for excellence in either field.

Intersections, in particular, fascinate me, and spalted woodturning is the perfect medium to explore both internal and external intersections. The intersection of science and art. The intersection of old and new methodology–from historic spalted intarsia and marquetry work in the 1400s in Europe to modern spalting methods today that use extraction methods and pipettes. The intersections of form and self–the duality of being an intersex person–the understanding of biological sex in its most primitive form and the communication of those concepts in turned and reversed curves. And underlying it all, the intersection of how humans perceive fungi–both reviled/feared and celebrated as a food source. Spalted wood offers endless opportunities to explore and expose intersections both historic, modern, personal, and external.