I don’t remember a time when I didn’t draw. And though my career is in graphic design and teaching, I still act as a multidisciplinary artist. Because of this, I have a habit of wandering between mediums, and I’m perfectly happy to get lost along the way. Sculpture, drawing, painting, screen printing, digital art, motion, I like to keep my options and mind open to whatever medium will carry an idea.
Medium to Match Meaning
I’ve worked with metal, glass, electronics, photography, augmented reality, and more, with each bringing its own possibilities, problems, and occasional happy accidents. What happens when unlikely materials meet, disciplines overlap, and an idea refuses to stay in its lane? These things catch my attention. My work has appeared in regional, national, and international juried exhibitions, but the real fun is in the experimenting, the problem-solving, and the discoveries that happen somewhere between “I wonder if…” and “Well, that’s interesting.”
Art with Metal, Glass, Collage, and HYDRIODS!
This entire body of work sprang to life after one of my young children excitedly pointed to a water tower and exclaimed, “Dad, it’s a robot!” I kind of let my imagination do the rest. The series ended with six metal and glass sculptures that asked the question, “What are the moments that define a transition to adulthood?” When do we put away our toys and grow up? And should we bother?
Hydroids!
Somewhere in the middle is a line of toys called Hydroids! Hydroids are collectible toys made only for grown-ups. They should never come out of the box and playing with them is out of the question. This iteration of the water tower robots came with a commercial that was aired on Spike TV.
Augmented Reality With The Kite Project
Each image in the following body of work is a person in my life that grapples with anxiety. An animated line, created and defined by the subject, tethers their outward self to the true, fragile, inner self, represented by a ceramic lined portrait of the individual. The frenetic line is only activated by viewing through an augmented reality application on a mobile smart phone. The work encourages the viewer to invest time and make an effort to perceive the fear and anxiety our fellow humans endure so we can build more empathy and better understanding. Use the ARTIVIVE APP to view, or watch the video below.
Strange Faces Digital Portraits and Type
I feel I was a very early adopter of digital drawing apps on the iPad. This was a series that emerged from testing and learning some of the capabilities and limitations of this format. Digital drawing apps and hardware continue to advance and I’m here for it. When I was a teenager I would doodle faces constantly. Sometimes they would be thematic, think, gang of ruffians, or just weird. I always pushed the proportions to make them have big character looks. In these I added whirling typography with snippets of the thoughts that roamed either my head or the character’s while drawing.
