I work primarily with paper-mâché, a humble medium that is often underestimated. It's accessible to anyone, requires no special tools or process, and it's biodegradable, non-toxic, doesn’t stink, and easy to clean up. It’s also incredibly strong, flexible, durable, and complex.
My work is made from paper and cardboard, with wooden armatures, nuts and bolts, and a bunch of masking tape. I use almost entirely recycled material. The insides are boxes, grocery bags, junk mail, packing material, and stacks of old Portland Mercury and Willamette Week newspapers.
The subjects are often mythical creatures. Some are traditional, and others are imagined amalgamations, but all are fantastical.
Biography
I didn’t have much adult supervision growing up. I was a “latchkey kid” in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s being raised by a young, ambitious, single mom. Drawing was my thing and I found an art store one day wandering home from school. I started frequenting the place and saved up to buy the book “Animation: Learn How to Draw Animated Cartoons” by Preston Blair along with a big pad of newsprint and sticks of vine and pressed charcoal. I practiced drawing every character, and tried different mediums, pigments, pencils, and papers when I could afford them.
I sold my first illustration in 3rd grade, and as my interests changed, so did my art. I'd draw or paint whatever I was into at the time like rockets, jet airplanes, horses, unicorns, skateboarding, punk rock, Italian scooters, then the mod scene. By my senior year in high school I managed to convince the faculty to let me spend most of the day in the Art classroom and skip my other classes. To this day I cannot recall how I pulled that off.
I went to the Otis/Parsons College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, but by the third year I was restless and wanted to drop out. When I met with the chair of the department hoping she'd have some magic words that'd convince me to stay, she just said "Not everyone belongs in school, it's a system designed for a mass group and some people just fall through the cracks." No magic words, just a parting "Good luck.” Subsequently, I dropped out and pursued a design career.
CV
Shows, Installations and Events
2018
First Fridays PDX Portland, Oregon
NWDSA Buddy Fest 2018 Portland, Oregon
Holiday Unicorn Cambia Health Portland, Oregon
2019
First Fridays PDX Portland, Oregon
Holiday Unicorn and Friends Cambia Health Portland, Oregon
Sculpture Now! Juried Show Portland, Oregon
International Sculpture Day Juried Show Portland, Oregon
Art in the Pearl Artist Demo: Paper Maché Sculpture for the Pacific Northwest Sculptors Group Unmatched Pairs Exhibition at the Multnomah Art Center
2020
The LunaShow at Splendorporium Gallery Portland, Oregon
The Pink Show at Splendorporium Gallery Portland, Oregon
Memento Mori at Splendorporium Gallery Portland, Oregon
The Night Circus at Splendorporium Gallery Portland, Oregon
The Art of Quarantine at Art at the Cave Vancouver, Washington
2021
Art at the Cave Vancouver, Washington
2023
Pacific Northwest Sculptors “Into the Deep” Newport, Oregon
Oregon Country Fair Xavanadu installation artist Veneta, Oregon
2024
Oregon Country Fair Xavanadu installation artist Veneta, Oregon
Pickathon Installation artist Portland, Oregon
Art in the Pearl Artist Demo: Paper Maché Sculpture for the Pacific Northwest Sculptors Group
Media
Møtrik “Artificial Head” Featuring the Laser Unifox Music Video Director
Workshops
Paper Maché Sculpting Inspiration Workshop
Paper Maché Masterclass at Splendorporium
Professional Organizations
Pacific Northwest Sculptors Group
Education
Otis College of Art & Design 1995 Communication Design
Academic Experience
Cogswell Polytechnical College San Jose, California - Adjunct Professor - Digital Imaging Concepts
Professional Experience
User Experience Designer 11 years
Web Designer, Developer 28 years
Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Art Director, Audio/Video Editor 34 years
Complete professional resumé available on request
Artist’s Statement
Everything is made up. We’ve agreed upon a set of things that we consider real, and those things forms our reality, but it’s all subjective, and filtered through unreliable brains that let us think we’re in control, but in reality we are just flinging along the sliver of a universe we barely comprehend that is observable, predictable, and amazing.
Things get all screwed up when we start deciding the meaning of things, and come up with ridiculous notions that assigns value to one thing over another. Is it a weed or a plant? Savage or civilized? We decide that things we fear, or don’t understand, are evil. Those other people over there that we don’t know? The ones that look different, eat different, sound different? Different is scary, so they must be evil. We better get them, before they get us.
Fear of our shameful sex parts and biological functions is a persistent theme. Anti-science and anti-intellectualism.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” - Issac Asimov
We make up governments that are all about money, a.k.a power, and power corrupts the best of us. We’re mostly feeble-minded creatures that are easily influenced, so a few of us decide they know what’s best and try to impose that on everyone else. Of course, it’s usually fear, hate, or greed motivating those that seek power.
At any given moment something could happen that changes everything and blows our collective minds. But change threatens powerful people, they like things just the way they are. They’ll try to stop the thing, but it’s too late. Eventually, it makes its way into the world and everyone is better for it. Then we normalize it, get bored, forget what we learned, and go on making up problems, making discoveries, and making babies. Those babies grow up, the impossible things become routine, and the world is momentarily saved.
It’s also about power mongering greedy sociopaths delivering shareholder value at the expense of our planet so they can wear comically priced trinkets to impress each other. Artists can create beauty and joy and wonder and awe. Human history is represented by the art that was created at the time period. It fills our museums and inspires future generations to create.
