I created a series of wooden sculptures to go beyond the flatness of the canvas, allowing me to work within a physical dimension. My goal was to have them retain the raw and organic aspect of the wood and to create a visually direct structure. The pieces have multiple dimensions, which allow the viewer to enjoy them from different angles. The deeply carved out areas add in a simplistic sophistication, which reacts to the angle being viewed. Adding color that represented an overall mood but also preserving and utilizing the wood grain is a vital part of the art itself. When I first began this series, I started using paint but then soon realized this was laying on the surface and covering up the wood grain. Moving on to color dyes enabled the wood to absorb into the grain while still retaining the color intensity. The result is beautiful pieces with a simplified structure, free from over-built ornamentation. As with a lot of my work, my influences for this wood sculpture series are the simplified lines of a Picasso and Beckman painting with the color intensity of Chagall.