Animate On Scroll.

The World

Animate On Scroll.

The Glimmerwood grows from John’s love of stories and childhood escapes into the woods, where he says “my imagination was born here, creating races of elves, goblins, and the worlds they lived in.” His use of mixed media and experimental materials to express them is the outgrowth from one of his first lessons: “First you figure out what you want to create, then you figure out how.”

Blodeuwedd

OF PINIONS & TALONS, BONES & FLOWERS
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“There is something fragile and vulnerable in the female form that is very important to what I’m trying to do. It’s also far more emotive than any masculine form.  When trying to represent our innermost being in a work I like the female form as it is more exposed naturally, as opposed to a masculine form. “

Kappa

“There is a Japanese belief that a person can transform themselves by putting on a mask to get through a difficult time, but they cannot always take it off after they have put it on. I feel like the masks are spirits. I’m always fascinated by what defines a spirit as a spirit… is it an emotion? Is it sentient? Is it elemental in nature? Is it an embodiment of an animal? Is it the manifestation of an idea? Of course, a spirit can be any of these.  In my work I think the masks embody something more animalistic and/or elemental.  The masks transform a figure wearing them into whatever characters and narratives are associated with the depiction of that mask.”

Ghosthunter

ARTEMIS’ ROOK

“Reversing the writing in a work of art creates a deeper level of engagement with the viewer. I believe that where you find visual symbolism, therein lies the language of the spirit.  Abstraction is the emotive language of the soul.  Abstract expressionism embodies and explores this.  Just as importantly, my reversing of the written content indicates something of a more direct “spirit language” conveyed from a “dream-realm” that is on the other side.

Thistle

LOVE ME, LOVE ME NOT

“I love the combination of pastel pinks, peaches, and purples. The pastels are really where I feel a spiritual sense of whimsy.  It's in those grays that have a color, but you can't quite identify what that color is, where there is a simultaneous sense of revelation and ambiguity that is mysterious to me.”

Nightflame

DEADSTALKS
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“I like to embody emotive spirits with insects. A wasp is an angry spirit, whereas a honeybee has very different emotional associations as well as mythological implications.  These also are interesting places to explore and weave stories together.  For example, some wasps lay their eggs in spiders.  So, referencing a spider brings all the connotations of plotting and entrapment; or conversely, all the beautiful raiments of Arachne - Unless they’re daddy-long-legs.  Then it’s just a fun mix of whimsical spookiness. “

Mnemos

GHOST CICADA​
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“On some of my pieces, when you look at the branches really close, they're not just white. They  have many different pastels glimmering through them. They’re not a bright pastel, they’re a toned down pastel. Like a ghost of color trying to manifest from behind the veil.”

Cuckoo

HOME IS ONLY  SKIN DEEP​

“When I was a kid we moved a lot, and wherever we moved I would explore the woods around me and would come across some interesting things.  I was drawn to the abandoned buildings, mysterious mounds, hidden gardens, vividly colored water treatment ponds, and secret entrances into places like the zoo when we lived in Lansing. In my work I’m drawn to reclaiming and redeeming something that was lost.  Something that was corrupted and then bringing that darkness into the light. It’s the idea of embracing brokenness and imperfection and unity with nature. I want to explore making that which was disfigured - beautiful.”

Watersong

“Many of my figures have a void/portal within the environments they inhabit.  They are the doorways of transformation, of thought and memory, between dream and  reality.  I like to think this is where they visit from, and from where their reality spills  over into ours.  I feel like that's a place for a story.  That's an entry way for me.  It's like a wormhole. These characters come out of that portal of memory or creation, and out of that void is where they come to life.”

Kazahana Springblossom

PERSEPHONE’S  FALSE SPRING

“I started using Kanji in my work for various reasons.  There are many words in the Japanese language that are poetic, conceptual, and have no clean western translation. Some of these words enter the associations of whatever stories I may be working with on a particular piece. Other times they are directly related to the title of the piece. Kanji are fascinating letterform abstractions. At some point I realized that the constructs I place my figures into have evolved to mimic kanji-like forms. Perhaps born from my own origin story, it’s been a natural oddity to have adopted a love for Kanji along with Japanese pottery and fairy tales. Like all written content in my work, the Kanji are reversed as well.”