Me:

Like many humans, I began to draw at an early age, and like most artists, never stopped. Even now, for whatever project I undertake, be it painting, 3D computational design, or a shopping list, drawing remains the essential first step. Growing up in New York, inspiration was always close at hand in collections at the Met, Frick, and Morgan, where you can leave simultaneously feeling both exalted and about two inches tall. Through them, I learned to appreciate an attention to detail, thoughtfulness, and craftsmanship that continues to guide me, principles that can be formulated as: Things should be complicated, but no more complicated than necessary; and in design, there is no fine line between sculpture, jewelry, and architecture — except perhaps for the plumbing.

As I pursued my art, instead of an overarching message, I became increasingly preoccupied with the objects themselves inhabiting my pictures and refocused my efforts on their refinement - - even if it meant denying the world my profound insights! That redirection led to a couple of practices I’ve followed since: As standalone ideas, or “elements”, gather in my sketchbooks, to keep inventory down, I strive to integrate several into each new piece, and when conceiving an object, as an exercise, I try to conjure it in its totality, its front, its back, in fact, in all the well known directions. This explains the varied viewpoints many works receive in the gallery, making their imminent emergence into the material realm a mere formality — if ya get my drift.

With the advent of 3D CAD software – Rhinoceros in my case – and now free to experiment with an almost boundless space of forms, I was much better able to grapple with the interplay of shape, ornament, and the underlying mathematics, which hopefully just knits discretely in the background. About 12 years ago I incorporated the marvelous Rhino add-on Grasshopper, a parametric modeler which allows the designer to even further extend their explorations. By adjusting one or more parameters, a design which once had to be redone from scratch whenever a previous step was altered, can now be endlessly modified, affording an almost paralyzing degree of flexibility. Although it has become a favorite in the architectural and industrial design fields, it also has a wide artistic potential, a conclusion I hope you will draw from my work.

If you are intrigued by what you see, I am available to work with you on any interesting design project you have in mind, or you can commission me to put my full range of skills and interests at your disposal. Should that not work out, I just might return to my roots on the stage. Yep, that’s right, I used to ride shotgun on the Santa Fe, and Overland Trails.