Art isn’t just a hobby. It is central to how I communicate affection and appreciation for my friends, family, and colleagues. Here, I showcase work made from the heart for those close to me.
The work here, while not of the highest skill level, has significance to me. With each crafted item I reflected more on my relationship with the person in mind, experimented with new mediums, and learned new techniques.
If there is one thing I believe: art is in the process, it is in the uncertainty of the medium and repetition of a technique that there is discovery.
Doubled dipped, just how I roll. An under mixed, thick sediment glaze allowed for the curdled, curling of this glaze. Dipped in on the over glazed and let it drip down for a gooey exterior.
Part 1 of a 3 part mother’s day gift from years ago. My mother, Michele, has been a huge creative supporter— trips to art fairs, days kept in captivity behind the bolted bars of fabric stores, hands dropped deep into the button barrel’s of Eddie’s in Monterey. Maybe her favorite, and mine, will always be the off beat potterer’s gallery. What better gift than the clay thrown and colored by her own daughter’s hands.
A celadon tone for this double dipped bowl. What’s interesting here, is that I doubled dipped in the exact same glaze.
Part 2 of a 3 part mother’s day gift from years ago.
An example of how glaze plays across dimension and over textured ridges during the firing process. Part 3 of a 3 part mother’s day gift from years ago.
A sign made for my father’s company, to have in his home office. He spends a lot of time out in the elements, so I wanted to pull earthy tones back into his home space, for days when he couldn’t make it out. Not one time, when we’ve driven past a reservoir or a river, has he NOT commented on how high or low it was compared to the week before. Nature is very important to him, and how we choose to interact with it is also a main concern of his.
Our development can either disrupt or can foster the development of nature. The idea here was to visually play with structure, having compacted sediment layers running organically through the letters intermittently interrupted by graphic, hard-lined structures.
A few years back, Dan Dour had 1 road crash too many. Yearly, he had participated in the Bay Area’s Best Buddies Century 100 mile ride. Months spent fundraising, weeks spent cycling up to Mt. Hamilton from our family home in San Jose. He was determined to complete one last ride up to Hearst Castle, he wouldn’t say goodbye so quickly.
Having just gotten my first soldering iron, I set forth on creating a gift he could have to reflect this part of his life as he experimented with other forms of exercise. Notably, he was an avid hula-hooper in his early post cycling days.
Okay, I will admit it— I’m a big shonen jump nerd. Another admittance— I’m terrible at buying gifts. I do excel in thoughtfulness and possess a compounding level of effort when it comes to showing someone I care.
A true friend’s birthday was coming up, I was a week out and still had no idea what I would get him. Happens we both love the same series, so I casually asked him what his favorite panel was, then got to work.
I felt more confident in my skill with the soldering iron than I had before, but I’d mostly only tackled line art up to this point. Coming books and manga panels require a lot of shading— so I forced myself to work at different temperatures and to work with 4 different tips and pressure techniques to get a range of shading and texture across the wood.
This all felt appropriate considering Endeavor is a flame hero who has struggled with the limitations of overheating. This panel is him overcoming that bodily limitation in order to defeat a super powered Nomu. I encased the replication in flames I shaped out of copper and gold jewelry wire.
