I am in love, perhaps obsessed with nature. I live part-time on 70 acres in Vermont with hiking trails and thousands of trees. I spend countless hours hiking endless miles on mountain trails around the world, most recently the Tour du Mont Blanc in Switzerland; and earlier, the south island in New Zealand. My passion is for the trees I encounter with their endless variety, shape, strength and fecundity.

Inspiration for my figurative work always begins with a fallen piece of tree that I sense communicating with me. I begin to see forms and figures entwined with its trunk, and I drag home a section of maple, oak, or birch ripe with possibilities.

As I sculpt, I often integrate small twigs with the clay figure, and then cast these together in bronze. After casting, I weld bolts to the bronze section and drop it, with great care, into matching holes in the wood. This allows for easy shipping, as the bronze is always removable.

If inspiration ebbs, I take a hike in the woods and look at the souls of trees. I watch for one to speak to me of a subject, a mood, an expression, or form. For me, a willow truly weeps, and trees ravished by fire are truly pained. Like us, no two trees are alike. Out of the billions that exist each tree is alive with its own character and soul.

Sometimes I model my figures after biblical and historical people whose stories touch me. As I sculpted Cain and Abel, the idea of a brother slaying his only sibling filled me with grief. I often find myself talking to my clay "person," trying to imagine living thousands of years ago. What love, joy and pain did he or she experience?

Sculpting bonds me to the web between all souls and brings the individuals in my pieces to life for me. It is this connection of souls that spiritually inspires me. As I work, I feel all of us coming together - me, the figure, and you - each of us interlaced with the soul of a tree.

Jeffrey Breslow began his artist journey at 15. Hazel Loew, an elfin, high school teacher, infused Jeffrey with her energy and love for art and design. He decided to become a potter and built his own throwing wheel and kiln. This marked a path of building things, which took Jeffrey from clay pots to Industrial Design at the University of Illinois where he met Ed Zagorski, the first of three mentors.

Zagorski, at 39, introduced 17-year-old Jeffrey to the world of design: automobiles, furniture, appliances and toys. Jeffrey was hooked. Designing children's toys and games became the creative grail Jeffrey was seeking. After graduation, Jeffrey worked for the independent, Chicago, toy design genius, Marvin Glass, who became Jeffrey's second mentor. For seven years, Glass mentored Jeffrey in toy design. He also introduced Jeffrey to the world of fine art collecting art. Glass, an extensive collector, had a home filled with originals -- Salvador Dali and Picasso, among others. The Glass toy studio was also filled with art: Chagall prints and original sculptures by Frank Gallo, who had been Jeffrey's sculpture teacher at the University of Illinois.

The first piece of fine art Jeffrey owned was a gift from Mr. Glass - a sculpture by Robert von Neumann. When Marvin Glass sadly died, Jeffrey, a partner in the firm of Marvin Glass and Associates, went on to run the company from 1967 until 1988 when he started his own toy design firm with his other partners, Howard Morrison and Rouben Terzian. Today, as head of Big Monster Toys, one of the largest and most successful toy design studios in the world, Jeffrey still designs and plays with toys

Sculpting returned to Jeffrey's life in 1996, not from a mentor, but a muse. After falling in love with Ginna Frantz, he was smitten to the point of wanting to sculpt a clay nude of his future wife. The risk felt enormous, since Jeffrey hadn't sculpted since college, but he thrived on risk: white water rafting, rock climbing, down hill skiing, riding fast horses and skydiving. The risk paid off with a successful, bronze Ginna, and a very happy marriage.

Now Jeffrey is phasing out 38 years of toy designing to concentrate on sculpting. His third and present mentor, Susan Clinard, is both an artist and sculpture teacher, who has overseen all of his most current, figurative, bronze and wood pieces.