Functional sand cast & lathe turned brass studies for ongoing Sonic Monument sculpture series, inspired by personal expression & growth.
Sculpture depicts this voice recording that inspires the artist:
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anaïs Nin, Author
The iconic duffel bag has served as an impromptu seat at the airport, train station, or campsite for explorers the world over. I wanted to translate this universal concept into an intentional collection of functional art. Each modular unit is packed with furniture grade foam and lashed together with climbing rope and carabiners to support the next wave of exploration.
This 2022 studio experiment was the realization of a sketch based on a yearning for travel during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Stuffing several XL Base Camp duffels from The North Face with furniture grade foam, we lashed each bag together as building blocks with the help of climbing rope and carabiners.
DUFFA is modular functional art, packed with the spirit of adventure.
Fabrication Support: Raymond Crisostomo; Cushion Works
Film: Juan Urrutia
Narration: Brian Madden
S Things™ are a suite of home accessories with varying functionality, forged in the mystery of the ubiquitous ‘S thing’ or ‘stussy’ doodle (depending on your nation or middle school of origin). I created S Things™ Against Cancer for the 3rd annual Run Trill™ charity art auction on Friday, June 1, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s One Grand Gallery, with all proceeds supporting Providence Cancer Center. The collection was created with guidance by Nike 3D footwear designer Justin Beauford and 3D Shop Tech & Teacher Jamie Potter, and additional production support by Harleigh Doremus and Audrey Farrell.
The original suite of S Things consisted of a a CNC-carved and hand-finished walnut bowl, two stainless steel trivets (one with a raw finish and one with a fluorescent orange powder coat), a brass bottle opener, as well as a full scale meme-like take on Juicy Salif, designer Philippe Starck’s iconic Alessi lemon squeezer, which I called Stuicy Salif. S Things™ were auctioned off along with the work of over 30 talented international creatives from Run Trill™ and special guests. In 2018, we raised an estimated $20,500 with a match, totaling an estimated $41,000, effectively doubling our first two years of fundraising efforts.
Run Trill™ is a team of over 30 international designers with a love for making art, contributing to community causes and running the epic Hood to Coast™ relay. Run Trill™ is in its fifth year, and over the past three years, Run Trill™ has raised an estimated $78,000 for Providence Cancer Center through its Arts and Athletics Establishment. Currently the world-famous team has 36 members from 9 Nations: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and Wales.
Visit RunTrill.com for more information.
S Things™ are a suite of home accessories with varying functionality, forged in the mystery of the ubiquitous ‘S thing’ or ‘stussy’ doodle (depending on your nation or middle school of origin). I created S Things™ Against Cancer for the 3rd annual Run Trill™ charity art auction on Friday, June 1, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s One Grand Gallery, with all proceeds supporting Providence Cancer Center. The collection was created with guidance by Nike 3D footwear designer Justin Beauford and 3D Shop Tech & Teacher Jamie Potter, and additional production support by Harleigh Doremus and Audrey Farrell.
The original suite of S Things consisted of a a CNC-carved and hand-finished walnut bowl, two stainless steel trivets (one with a raw finish and one with a fluorescent orange powder coat), a brass bottle opener, as well as a full scale meme-like take on Juicy Salif, designer Philippe Starck’s iconic Alessi lemon squeezer, which I called Stuicy Salif. S Things™ were auctioned off along with the work of over 30 talented international creatives from Run Trill™ and special guests. In 2018, we raised an estimated $20,500 with a match, totaling an estimated $41,000, effectively doubling our first two years of fundraising efforts.
Run Trill™ is a team of over 30 international designers with a love for making art, contributing to community causes and running the epic Hood to Coast™ relay. Run Trill™ is in its fifth year, and over the past three years, Run Trill™ has raised an estimated $78,000 for Providence Cancer Center through its Arts and Athletics Establishment. Currently the world-famous team has 36 members from 9 Nations: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and Wales.
Visit RunTrill.com for more information.
Partially digitally manufactured, and fully hand-assembled and painted, this one-off Looney Tunes-inspired birdhouse was created with my friend Kelso Davis for the 'Put a Bird in it!' charity auction at WeMake Celebrates, the climactic closing party of Design Week Portland 2014. After designing the form in SketchUp, Baltic birch plywood circles were CNC routed at The Good Mod in Portland, Oregon, and laminated to create a functioning birdhouse, entirely hand-painted. The opaque white acrylic ‘That’s All Folks’ script was laser-cut by Portland’s MC Laser Labs. We installed the script using a series of custom hand-cut and glued supports to offset the birdhouse’s concentric layers.
Professional Photography by Ethan Allen Smith
Terrazzo is a resilient composite material made of crushed aggregate such as glass, quartz or other stone, contained within a pourable binding agent, like a concrete or polymer, and polished to a smooth surface finish, often for use as flooring or wall covering.
While designing the exhibit structure for the Luminaries Lighting Design Showcase and Silent Charity Auction. I leveraged learnings from experiments with crushed glass aggregate to develop a custom terrazzo casting technique using 14” and 10” IKEA salad bowls, and 2-part pourable resin plastic, tumbled sea glass, and a generous dose of mold release to create Fruitcake, a translucent terrazzo floor light.
After removing the light shade from the IKEA bowl mold, I cut a wooden dowel into three short equal lengths and installed them in the bottom of the form to create space for the light socket, cord, and foot-controlled power switch, while floating the whimsical hemisphere off the ground.
Afterward, I uploaded the process to Instructables.com, and Fruitcake was featured in the workshop category as an editor's choice.
Professional Photography by Rachel Vera
S Things™ are a suite of home accessories with varying functionality, forged in the mystery of the ubiquitous ‘S thing’ or ‘stussy’ doodle (depending on your nation or middle school of origin). I created S Things™ Against Cancer for the 3rd annual Run Trill™ charity art auction on Friday, June 1, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s One Grand Gallery, with all proceeds supporting Providence Cancer Center. The collection was created with guidance by Nike 3D footwear designer Justin Beauford and 3D Shop Tech & Teacher Jamie Potter, and additional production support by Harleigh Doremus and Audrey Farrell.
The original suite of S Things consisted of a a CNC-carved and hand-finished walnut bowl, two stainless steel trivets (one with a raw finish and one with a fluorescent orange powder coat), a brass bottle opener, as well as a full scale meme-like take on Juicy Salif, designer Philippe Starck’s iconic Alessi lemon squeezer, which I called Stuicy Salif. S Things™ were auctioned off along with the work of over 30 talented international creatives from Run Trill™ and special guests. In 2018, we raised an estimated $20,500 with a match, totaling an estimated $41,000, effectively doubling our first two years of fundraising efforts.
Run Trill™ is a team of over 30 international designers with a love for making art, contributing to community causes and running the epic Hood to Coast™ relay. Run Trill™ is in its fifth year, and over the past three years, Run Trill™ has raised an estimated $78,000 for Providence Cancer Center through its Arts and Athletics Establishment. Currently the world-famous team has 36 members from 9 Nations: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and Wales.
Visit RunTrill.com for more information.
This hand-painted puzzle is based on the vibrant spectrum of colors comprising Nike’s #BETRUE campaign, overlaid with a custom interlocking laser-cut puzzle pattern using line-work altered from Nike camouflage patterns.
I created the puzzle for the 2nd annual Run Trill charity art auction on Friday, June 30, 2017 at Portland, Oregon’s One Grand Gallery. The puzzle was sold at auction with all proceeds going to support Providence Cancer Center.
Run Trill™ is a team of over 30 international designers with a love for making art, contributing to community causes, and running epic relays. Run Trill™ has raised an estimated $120,000 for Providence Cancer Center through its Arts and Athletics Establishment.
Visit RunTrill.com for more information.
S Things™ are a suite of home accessories with varying functionality, forged in the mystery of the ubiquitous ‘S thing’ or ‘stussy’ doodle (depending on your nation or middle school of origin). I created S Things™ Against Cancer for the 3rd annual Run Trill™ charity art auction on Friday, June 1, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s One Grand Gallery, with all proceeds supporting Providence Cancer Center. The collection was created with guidance by Nike 3D footwear designer Justin Beauford and 3D Shop Tech & Teacher Jamie Potter, and additional production support by Harleigh Doremus and Audrey Farrell.
The original suite of S Things consisted of a a CNC-carved and hand-finished walnut bowl, two stainless steel trivets (one with a raw finish and one with a fluorescent orange powder coat), a brass bottle opener, as well as a full scale meme-like take on Juicy Salif, designer Philippe Starck’s iconic Alessi lemon squeezer, which I called Stuicy Salif. S Things™ were auctioned off along with the work of over 30 talented international creatives from Run Trill™ and special guests. In 2018, we raised an estimated $20,500 with a match, totaling an estimated $41,000, effectively doubling our first two years of fundraising efforts.
Run Trill™ is a team of over 30 international designers with a love for making art, contributing to community causes and running the epic Hood to Coast™ relay. Run Trill™ is in its fifth year, and over the past three years, Run Trill™ has raised an estimated $78,000 for Providence Cancer Center through its Arts and Athletics Establishment. Currently the world-famous team has 36 members from 9 Nations: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and Wales.
Visit RunTrill.com for more information.
During the summer of 2013, a creative team from Wieden + Kennedy, Nike, and Jordan Brand approached the events committee at IDL Worldwide and our onsite exhibition space in Portland, Oregon, Gallery 135, to host and help produce a future-spotting art exhibition called Mad Science PDX. A small group of invited artists were given a creative brief that asked “What if artists created the future of Science? What if scientists created the future of Art?”
My role on the Mad Science PDX team was to anchor the exhibition with a dynamic central installation. I reimagined the DJ’s Equalizer in three dimensions as a commentary on the immersive multi-media sensorial experience. With the help of a handful of local friends and wood shop owners, I designed, fabricated and installed the Mad Science EQ sculpture. Using repurposed wood and MDF I found throughout Portland, I used a table saw to cut thin rectangular strips to predetermined lengths, attaching them vertically to twelve individual plywood panels spanning a 3.5’ x 12’ surface at the center of the gallery space. After the event, employees of IDL requested that Mad Science EQ remain on display, and stood above the gallery for more than over three years, becoming a defining characteristic of the space.
The black heron (Egretta ardesiaca), is well known for its inventive hunting method called canopy feeding—it wraps its wings like an umbrella, and uses the shade it creates to attract fish.
Inspired by the black heron, these three pendant lights hung far below a 12-foot ceiling and hovered quietly above a reflecting pool as part of Feed the Animals PDX, a group exhibition hosted by my friend Sheri Smith at Gallery 135 in Portland, Oregon, USA.
I carefully cut and fanned two layers of dozens of ‘feathers’ around a core light socket and spacer, provided enough structure to create a dense umbrella-like shade for each pendant, that hung from a hand-wired woven cord. The reflecting pool was laser-cut into a custom profile using repurposed blue mirrored acrylic factory remnants.
Part of an ongoing series called Mussels inspired by travels to Italy, coastal Oregon and Massachusetts, and The Olive Garden.
Acrylic POSCA Marker on Paper
2021