Bio
Ted was born and raised in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The son of an art teacher and an engineer, he was inadvertantly trained to pursue both creative and analytical modes of thinking and in sculpture he struck a balance between the two. Dropping out of college in 1998 allowed Ted to establish connections that led to his becoming the owner of a streetfront gallery in LaCrosse, which in turn led to connections that put him in an MFA program in Delaware 4 years later. Currently, Ted is residing in Brooklyn, plying the New York abundance of artistic opportunities, and basically being broke.

Artist Statement
My work is a reaction to a world that amazes and frustrates me. I seek to bring sense to a nation that seems to be growing stiflingly chaotic with quantity winning out over quality. Corporate empires have scattered our landscapes with more extra junk than history has ever witnessed, so building with found-objects seems unique to our time, and I embrace this. Throughout my sculpture career I have sought to enact what I percieved to be the role of artists through the ages. In some tongue-in-cheek sort of way I felt that by doing what artist's had done, I too would become an artist. The same thing went for earning a degree in art: it seemed to be what they said would make me an artist. Truly I believe that an artist is made by their art, little else. It drives you.

The parts I choose are today worthless, yet at one time they had immense value, similar to the current role of artists in our society. I attempt to give these material goods a new life, a new postition, salvation from neglect. When I make sculpture, I'm not as concerned about the preservation of the individual parts as much as the creation of a whole, new image more powerful than its constituents. I chop things up and bend things, but I never paint an object. I feel the natural finish plays a very significant role in the history of that object and in my selection of it. These parts each have their own stories to tell, and its not my intent to gloss that over. Though the original owners of my materials might not get along in real life, in the sculptures their stuff cozies up like old friends, dropping barriers and forming new alliances. People who assume that I see something and think it looks like something else are only partially correct. In actuality, I see a space I need to fill and see if I can find anything that wants to fill it. If that doesn't work, I force something to.