As an undergraduate student I have explored different types of art. The area of my emphasis is woodworking so that is the art I will discuss in this statement. I have tried to deal with work that is different from traditional furniture. I choose to dye or paint the majortiy of my work and because of this I use poplar, bass, and maple. I would say that my professor Paul Sasso is someone who I am definitely influenced by. When I came to schoool at Murray State I had no idea that woodworking was a form of art. Until that time I thought it was just considered a craft because I had only been exposed to the craft form. Also the only furniture I had been exposed to until that point was traditional furniture such as the colonial style. The concept of painting and dyeing wood excited me greatly. It is because this field seems so new to me that I feel that it is wide open for possiblities. So far I have explored with mixing water in my work. For my first table I set a ten gallon aquarium inside it and installed a light underneath it. I then filled the tank with water that was dyed blue. The wood was dyed green to compliment the water. I found it visually stimulating at night when the blue murky light was glowing from the table. I am aware that this night scene is not something that would be seen while on display at a gallery but I think that it is an advantage to art furniture. Because it is also furniture it provides the opportunity to see a unique viewing experience within the home. While exploring the water ideas in my work I found that I was concentrating too much on the technical aspects and not enough on the actual form of the woodwork. Therefore I have recently embarked on a series of work in which I have been solely focused on the form of the pieces as a whole. I hope through this exercise that I will obtain a better sense of form and therefore will be able to include good form and technical aspects in my future work. As far as future work is concerned I have no definite plans. I may return to working with water however I cannot say for certain. I have worked with metals recently and I am considering work that would involve metalsmithing. Whatever is next I look forward to the experience and hope to ultimately try and push the concepts of art furniture to a new level.