Born in 1955, John Murray has worked with trees in one form or another for his entire adult life. He gained an understanding of the living organism through his work in regeneration forestry and forest genetics in British Columbia. After witnessing the destruction of Canada’s west coast old growth forests for a number of years, he made a conscious decision to find ways to work constructively and respectfully with forests. He began to study and to practice art and the material for his early works was almost exclusively from commercial logging waste. More recently he has been working with material from other areas of devastation, such as fires. His work is found in collections throughout North America.

The Vestige series sculptures embody a feeling from the past yet are very much of the present and future. As such, they might be described as markers reminding us of the illusion of linear time.

The Helix series is inspired by the idea that, whether visibly apparent or not, there is geometric structure in all things The Helix series sculptures show this geometry at times and also allow it to remain concealed. The helix, and certainly the double helix are fundamental forms in nature. The spiral or spirals are sensed through the placement of angular shapes yet are never fully revealed.