SLR Photography

This collection of photos represents less than half of a year's worth of my favorite shots from my newest favorite obsession. These photos were taken with a Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR that used to belong to my grandfather.

Digital Photography

This collection of photos represents less than half of a year's worth of my favorite shots from my newest favorite obsession. These photos were all taken with a Canon T1i and edited in Lightroom.

Ceramics

These are ceramic projects I have created for Berkeley art classes over the last four years.

What exactly do we leave behind? When fired, clay will survive a million or two years if undisturbed in the archeological record. With this fact in mind, I wanted to explore the themes of morality, ephemerality, and legacy in my project.

I created ceramic heads and feet, then joined them with sections of wood. After a million years (or even a hundred for that matter), all that will be left of them are the heads and the feet: all that will be remembered are the things that we do with our mind and the things we do with our bodies.

Twicks, 2013, ceramics and sections of cedar tree, dimensions variable

A collaboration with classmate Sam Stowe, this project was meant to flip the tables, so to speak, on the way we look at food consumption and the associated tools.

Humans buy meat and fruit from the grocery store, microwave it when they get home, and eat it with forks and knives. Things don't quite happen that way in nature.

In a lighthearted exploration of materials, we questioned what it means to sit down and eat food that you are so separated from.

What's For Dinner?, 2013, ceramics, napkins, and hand-thrown plates, dimensions variable

Without much of a plan, this was one of the first things I made in my advanced ceramics class.

Using all clay, I made a copy of my hand, my tattoo machine, a pencil, and a sheet of paper. To display them, I set them on a textured base.

Tools of The Trade, 2013, ceramics, 12 in. X 12 in. X 5 in.

For the annual DIRT ceramics show at UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Art Gallery, our class decided to curate an exhibit that was interconnected from student to student, around in a full circle. So while I used my own mold to create my own three objects, I also used two classmates' molds to integrate an aspect of their piece into mine.

My piece focused on the Russian annexation of the Crimea in Ukraine, with the red, white, and blue spray cans representing the Russian flag and its country's hasty actions.

Rodina Mat (Mother Homeland), 2014, ceramics and glaze, 18 in. X 18 in. X 10 in.

Stacie Vu, working with pacifiers as a representation for whistle-blowing, collaborated with me for the piece. Through the firing process, the round part of the pacifier proved to be made of a type of glaze rather than clay, but the results were welcomed.

Crying Kiev, 2014, ceramics and glaze, black ink, and mud, 6 in. X 8 in. X 10 in.

Adriana Lemus, working with faces and the idea of yet to be created memories, was to my other side. The somber expression reminded me of images from the protests in Kiev.

Forgotten Promises, 2014, ceramics, 24 in. X 8 in. X 10 in.

Sculptures

These sculptures came out of various class projects during my four years at Berkeley.

Art 165: Art, Meditation, and Disability. This project was an attempt to create healing beads for a class focused around meditation, healing, and self-betterment.

Beads of the Wild, 2014, mixed media, dimensions variable

Beads of the Wild, exhibited

Also for Art 165, Art in Meditation and Disability: this project, titled Transparent Beauty, is based upon Ethiopian healing scrolls.

In the western world, art and medicine are two totally separate realms. This is not so for many cultures though: Ethiopian healing scrolls heal believers and demonstrate the interrelationship between art and religious faith and their effect on physical and mental health.

Transparent Beauty, 2014, Mixed media, 5ft X 1ft

Another project for Art 165. Metaphor of Flight represents the struggle between normality and spiritual ascension. Made from found materials, this piece shows what can be done with minimal found objects and a positive outlook on life.

Made from found materials, the wood, string, beads, and wire represent qualities of the world that surround us every day, but are lost in the confusion of life.

Inspired by readings from the Persian poet, theologian, and mystyic Rumi, Metaphor of Flight attempts to tackle the issue of belief, ascension, and ability

Metaphor of Flight, 2014, Mixed Media, dimensions variable

In collaboration with Jason Thomason and Miles Mathews

Metaphor of Flight in its new home.

Hayfork, CA

Orange, 2014, broken branch of an orange tree, 6" X 8"

For my most recent class, Art 119: Global Perspectives in Contemporary Art, we focused on the current happenings of a globally interconnected art world.

For It's All Gucci, I wanted to speak to cultural appropriation, authenticity, and institutionalized motifs.

It's All Gucci, 2014, wooden drawer and acrylic paint, 2' X 3'

Printmaking

These linoleum reliefs, lithographs, intaglios, and silk screens represent some of the skills I developed in printmaking during my four years at Berkeley.

Paintings

I have only recently gotten in to painting. This series was inspired by a microscopic cross section of a colloid cyst, a growth in the brain that put my father into a coma and eventually destroyed his ability to walk, talk, and remember.

Doodles

Sometimes the mind drifts, and when that happens to me, I doodle. Some of my notes are more ridiculous than my drawings.

Sinograffiti

Sinograffiti is a project I put together for a sculpture class. I wanted to examine what differed between "ugly" and "beautiful" art, especially at the level of graffiti. Organized under the seven deadly sins, I found, photographed, and destroyed seven pieces of "ugly" street art using glazed clay spray cans with colored holi powder inside.

This project was for an upper division class, advanced ceramic sculpture through casts and molds.

To make a mold, you build clay up to the half-way divider of your object, surround everything with a wooden frame, pour plaster and let dry, turn everything over and remove the clay, and finally, pour plaster on the other side.

Orange- Over Indulgence. As globalized Americans, we are conditioned to consume: purchase, use, repeat. Art based around this carnal desire, art of the excess and unnecessary, is ugly art to me.

Sinograffiti, 2014, ceramics, colored powder, and photographic documentary

Filling ceramic spray cans with colored holi powder correlating to their respective sin, I smashed and documented my conversation with street artists, the public, and society at large.

Red, the color of anger, was an easy category of sin to fill. By definition, anger is the fear of losing power, an aversion to violation of boundaries and the associated lashing out.

Sinograffiti, 2014, ceramics, colored powder, and photographic documentary

To extend my project beyond the limitations of a single performance, I left behind glazed ceramic spray cans identical to the ones I smashed.

Light Blue- Sloth. Sometimes as an artist, it is easy to take the shortcut and favor production over quality. This laziness in approach creates its own form of "ugly" art

Sinograffiti, 2014, ceramics, colored powder, and photographic documentary

In the world of street art, respect is gained through proliferation, perseverance, and consistency. Often times, this is achieved through "tags", or stylized versions of their names.

Purple- Pride. The psychological rise some get from throwing their name on every visible surface boils down to pride, a sinful impetus for creation.

Sinograffiti, 2014, ceramics, colored powder, and photographic documentary

Yellow- Greed. Our constant need of accumulation is fostered by the environment that we live in. Greedy art is "ugly" art.

Sinograffiti, 2014, ceramics, colored powder, and photographic documentary

Dark Blue- Lust. Some of the greatest poems, songs, paintings, and acts of war have been inspired by this universal carnal desire called lust. Ugly things happen when people let their heart override their mind.

Sinograffiti, 2014, ceramics, colored powder, and photographic documentary

Green- Greed. We all want what we don't have. I'll leave it at that.

Sinograffiti, 2014, ceramics, colored powder, and photographic documentary

Telegraffiti

This set of almost 300 images were taken in late July, 2014 as part of a visual exploration of Bay Area street art through the art on Telegraph Avenue between UC Berkeley in the north and West Grand Avenue in the south. The names you see here are some of the most prolific in the bay.