When I was sculpting work for my show: “Extrapolating Nature”, it occurred to me that I was always blending my work into natural artifacts to look as if the whole item was “found”. The more seamless the better in my eyes. This method of taking the best from nature and modifying what was lacking in grace or uniqueness, I called “extrapolating nature”. Often I would splice disparate materials and mimic wood to look like rock and vice versa for the irony and the visual pun that would sometimes take the viewer aback. Well this time it occurred to me to do the opposite. Take something that was obviously man-made and contrast it abruptly in stark collision rather than feathered subtlety. Always trying to push the limits of how irony can be achieved. I spied this ancient, desiccated arbor vitae trun bleaching in the sun like some old steer skull and thought: “What would be the opposite of the grey earth tones of old wood be?”. Brilliant, artificial man-made enamels covering this fossilized mummy of a tree. The title immediately suggested itself, particularly given its resemblance to a crucifix. A religious artifact made over irreverently in the style of Haight Ashbury. That’s irony all right!