When I look at my work with rock and metal sculptures, I am amazed how experiences from my youth played a part in leading me to become an artist. Experiences that at the time were little more than a diversion remained with me, waiting for the right time to become a part of my life and career.

As a kid, I worked alongside my grandfather, father and uncle when they let me sweep up in the family’s metal shop. Through their tutelage and patience, I became interested in welding and fabrication, especially when I saw the ingenuity and creativity they used to solve difficult projects.

After high school, I attended the University of California in Santa Barbara. Shortly after graduation, I embarked on a 20-year career as a court reporter for the San Francisco Superior Court. Learning the technical aspects of court reporting suited my personality, much like the lessons I learned working in my family’s metal shop. They taught me to work hard and use all my skills to get the job done.

Still, I was highly motivated not to become trapped or tied to one area or job. My fear was I would squander valuable years of my youth by allowing my job to define who I was, limiting my choices in the future. Looking back, those were productive times, years I sacrificed to the present to allow me the opportunity to live the life I lead today.

In the mid-1990s, several events occurred that steered me into a new phase of my life. First, I visited the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The shock value of his art was not only visually interesting but forced me to relate to his work on an artistic level. Second, my wife and I bought a weekend home in the Napa Valley.

In the heart of the wine country with vineyards at every turn, I began noticing rocks jutting up out of the ground and others discarded by the roadside in huge piles where workers placed them as they cleared the fields for planting. In their shapes, I could visualize parts of human bodies, animals and snakes. Combinations of geometrically shaped river rocks, arranged in various complimentary and contrasting figurations, came to life in my imagination along with the desire to work them into pieces of art.

Remembering Warhol’s work in Pittsburgh, I began to visualize how with the skills taught to me as a young boy, I could attach these crude natural works of art with metal to produce something unique and beautiful. For three years before I retired from my career as a court reporter, I would arrive at my studio in Oakland at 5:00 a.m. and work until I had to leave to get to court, returning to the studio after we adjourned to spend a few more hours designing and creating.