What is your primary medium?
Three dimensional for sure. I think I have a pretty good mind for three dimensional structure and I'm also fascinated by animals and proportions. I am fascinated by light and how it goes through mediums. So yea, three dimensional sculpture.
How long have you been creating sculptures?
Not that long? About five years?
What got you interested in doing art?
There was a challenge that a friend of mine posted online A few years ago, the challenge was simply to make something out of paper. I had a hanging lamp in the entryway and I really did not like the cover. It had a very cheap cover on it. So I decided to make one out of paper. It was just a geometric pattern, simple printer paper folded over, but I really liked how it turned out and so that's what got me started. I put some colored lights in it and it just looked good.
Did you ever play around with lights as a kid?
Not that much. I think Christmas tree lights like any kid does. But no, not that much.
Have you always felt artistic or is this something that came later?
It has come later. I've always felt driven by creative projects though. I tried creative writing at one point. I've done some backyard metal casting of simple things like vegetables, simple patterns, mushrooms cast up very well. I've done some drawing lately and a little bit of painting within the last couple years.
Where do you get your inspiration?
That's hard to say. Inspiration is really something you can't search for very easily. It has to come to you. Nature is an inspiration. Animals of all sorts, really. The proportions and how those proportions can be transformed into a work of art through sculpture. Something like that.
What makes you feel like you need to create?
I think it's a matter of sanity. I think I really will go crazy if I'm not creating. It's an outlet I need. It's a distraction when things get difficult. It is something that makes me feel alive.
Are there opportunities you've had in Boise you might not have had elsewhere?
Absolutely. I've been to Burning Man a couple times and the only reason I was involved in that was because of people that I've met since I moved to Boise about 20 years ago. There is a great artistic community here in Boise. I think Boise is particularly accessible for amateur artists, up and coming artists. I think there's a lot of opportunities here. I mean, here at JUMP they've got events throughout the year. They're always looking for collaborators and that's how I first got started here a couple years ago. I saw a posting they did online talking about their Illumibrate Festival and I shot an email back and said, Hey, I've been working on this large light up paper fish and asked if they were interested. They said no. The deadline was already too close, which was probably for the best since I don't think I would have made that deadline. It was still a work in progress. But they were interested in something for the following year. So the following year I volunteered and it was great to be able to have space to show off something. There was a time when I was thinking about not moving to Boise, but possibly some other cities. And I don't know that I ever would have discovered art at all if I had ended up somewhere else.
Is art something you're able to make a living off of?
It is not, I am comfortable with that. I have made some money doing it. But at this point, I think it's really something that I want to do. I really want to be able to do projects that feel right to me, so to be able to do that as a hobby is fine with me. I am happy with my day job. So I just do it for fun.
Do you think art is something you'll ever stop doing?
I don't think so, no. I might change the types of art that I'll be doing, but one way or another I do feel I have to be creative.
Do you prefer working with paper or quilt batting?
They both come with their challenges. I think I like paper a little more. There's a real art to being able to layer paper in a way that the light goes through it nicely and doesn't show framing behind it or the structure underneath. Also with layers of paper and how the layers can be staggered you can get some very nice effects with how the light goes through it. The challenge with paper though is it's not the most sturdy material and has to be handled very carefully, especially with large pieces. I have damaged them, but yeah, I think the effect, especially for something like a large hanging lamp, I don't think you can beat paper.
What’s it been like for you to see the giraffes come to life and be enjoyed by people?
Oh, I love it. I love it especially that these particular pieces were done on a very short timeline. It was a little over two months from when we first came up with the idea and started fabrication to the event where they were shown. It was a marathon run to get them done. I'm happy that they came out pretty well. Happy that people got to see them. And I'm happy that they are still here and I can continue working on them and refining them a little more so that they can be out for other events in the future.
Is there anything that I haven't asked you about?
Maybe some about the process. Really, my background is not in art, I have no formal education in art. My background is actually in engineering. When I first moved to Boise I was working at Micron as a semiconductor engineer. That isn't a background that I think translates well to art. You wouldn't think so, but engineering does have some benefits when it comes to shape and proportion. I don't have the artistic sensibility to say, take a lump of clay and shape it into something that looks like a giraffe. However, I can take measurements off of pictures, I can build up an Excel spreadsheet that has different measurements all over it, and I can use that as a stepping stone to start shaping out the structure of something so it ends up looking organic and natural and properly shaped.
Do you think your background has influenced what you choose to create?
It has in the sense that it's influenced what I'm able to create. Because my mind often thinks in numbers, I'll think of how to build something from a structural standpoint, from an idea of measurement and based on proportions from that. I think it also helps in the sense of how to build something fairly large, like these giraffes, that can be structurally stable. Though, really, I think it comes down to just being able to process the math. It influences me to try to push the limits. To create projects that reach the limits of what I think can be done from that standpoint. I do think sometimes that I should have gone to art school instead. That it would have enriched my art more. And I'm sure it would have. I think if I had though, I would be doing different projects, and I don't know if that would be good or bad. But if it wasn't for an engineering background, I would not be doing projects like this. I don't think.
Do you think your future works are going to include lights?
Likely, yes. In particular because it's a medium I'm attracted to and also because I want to collaborate with JUMP in the future. Their Illumibrate light festival is going to happen again and I would like to make more pieces for it.