An elegant armature that floats on shifting breezes.

This piece is still in development.  My process is basically the standard design process--draw, draw, draw; build prototypes to work out the functional mechanism; make esthetic decisions; fabricate the finished piece.  

A working prototype used for ongoing R&D is shown here; three possible esthetics are shown below.

Vienna Secession inspired framework that supports a block of ice illuminated by a laser.  The laser diode is powered by electricity harvested from candles.

Mixed-media, light-reactive electronic circuits and motors.  Some seek light, some avoid it; different combinations of inputs and simple reactions create varied and complex behavior.

I like these little guys.  Intuitive exploration of form using paper, cardboard, and twigs. 

I love clay.  So versatile and immediate, so much potential to explore shape, texture, function and esthetics.  These pictures are shown in no particular order and probably need to get tidied up.  I'll get to it.

Hatch Workshop in Stockton commissioned these.  They wanted fully functional bike racks that are also decorative street furniture.  I was to design them and Hatch would fabricate them, and install them in partnership with the City of Stockton.  We went through the entire design process, I sent them files to convert into cutting paths, and COVID happened.  For quite a while I thought the entire project (and possibly Hatch) had evaporated; I put the whole thing out of my mind.  One day out of the blue an envelope from Hatch showed up in the mail--a brief thank you note and a check.  They had done it!  I live nowhere near Stockton, so I looked up the racks on Google maps.  Better pictures are coming, but for now, here's a screenshot of the least terrible view of one of the racks (there are four).  Images from my design proposal are below. 

A collaboration with Taro Hattori.  This was his entry in the 2022 SFMOMA Soapbox Derby.  I was primarily responsible for engineering and fabricating the thing.  Success in that kind of work means making something strong and highly functional while also making it look like I didn't do anything.

The esthetic of the piece was to be raw and honest, but sort of ridiculous in action.  It was loaded up with rolls of toilet paper (remember what a big deal TP was?) that were flung into the crowd as the trike plunged down the hill.  There was a list of charities tucked into each roll.  

A collaboration with Travis McFlynn.

Lam Research develops techniques for manufacturing microchips, mostly to do with creating silicon wafers and etching circuits into them.  This is the stuff that makes modern technology work; the actual "chip" inside those little black plastic bricks that are the heart of your phone, your laptop, and a jillion other things.  

Lam contacted CCA, the college we were both graduating from at the time, asking if anybody there could make some art out of their technology.  The Provost said "Huh?" and Travis and I said "YES."  It turned out that Lam was in the process of redecorating some of their offices in San Jose and they wanted to create an inspirational, creative brainstorming space for their scientists: the Innovation Lounge.  They provided some decommissioned lab equipment and a few defunct silicon wafers; Travis built a free standing sculpture, I made a series of photos, and together we created a pair of "light sculptures" to decorate both the lounge and the waiting room.  These were mounted inside the office ceiling; light was reflected and refracted by carefully arranged silicon wafer shards and through various lenses, creating shimmering washes of color on the wall.