As a self-taught artist, Ernest has been sculpting professionally since 1976. Working with wood for the first seven years, he created award-winning sculptures as well as commissioned murals, mantels, archways and doors. In 1983, he began sculpting in clay and casting works in bronze, for both limited editions and commissions. Between 1988 and 1999, he cast many works in clear acrylic lucite, creating a series of mythological images as well as a commissioned, sixteen-foot-tall cross with Christ figure, The Cross of New Life, for Holy Family Parish in Inverness, Illinois. This is the largest figurative sculpture cast in acrylic to date. Returning to bronze in 2000, Ernest continues to create images that carry a soul-nourishing sense of Spirit and Mystery.