Mayor's Art Show 2023

I am a licensed architect living and working in Eugene, Oregon. Though I was encouraged to draw and paint as a child, my interest in arts and crafts did not truly emerge until my early twenties. After completing undergraduate school at Penn State, where I studied landscape architecture, I attended an alternative building workshop led by Paolo Soleri at the experimental town Arcosanti in central Arizona. After completing the workshop, I remained at the community for an additional six months where I worked in a bronze foundry that made sand-casted bronze bells and sculpture. Living at Arcosanti allowed me access to wood and metal shops as well as a ceramics studio and it is here that I first became interested in architectural ceramics and figurative sculpture. After leaving Arcosanti, I attended an apprenticeship in timber frame carpentry where I learned wood joinery using hand tools and traditional techniques. This experience would lay the foundation for my work in furniture design and making. In my personal artistic practice, I am largely self-taught, and though I have chosen to explore many different media, the common thread that runs through all of my creative work is a dedication to craftsmanship. In regard to methods and technology, I am not bound to any particular approach or ideology and I am equally open to, and interested in, both time-honored traditional methods as well as the latest digital technologies. I have taught several courses in digital modeling and CNC fabrication for the University of Oregon as an adjunct instructor. As an artist and craftsperson, I revel in the age we live with so many amazing technologies that are available to explore creatively.