A New Level

When I started my creative journey as a very young boy, I learned from builders, musicians, and readers: the medium of carpentry, the medium of music and the medium of language.

And then I went to school. In addition to general education, I homed in on studies in technical drawing, advanced mathematics, music and philosophy.

After school, for over 13 years, I focused on furniture design.

And for the last 8 1/2 years I have been on a whirlwind tour of methodologies in fiber-reinforced resins, foam sculpture, custom carpentry, mold-making and casting, sculpted cement, scenic painting, airbrushing, model-making, welding, animatronics, gallery art, and more. But now that is done.

Here I am, at another turn in the bit of timeline I get to travel on Earth. I join a school district with gratitude to the tax payers of the great state of California who saw fit to provide for education in the arts. With my four decades of life and learning, I have earned the opportunity to lend my experience to the collaborative project of theater arts for three high school programs in my home town.

For as long as I can remember, some of my happiest achievements have resulted from successful collaboration: summiting Mt. Lyell with my dad, traveling to far off places with loved ones to experience other cultures, creating custom furniture that meets the need of people, performing in musical groups to the delight of listeners, and building fantastical environments for other humans to experience wonderment. In the same sense, I love watching teams of successful collaborators: Formula 1 crews and engineers working with drivers to push the edge of performance and innovation, professional soccer players moving on and off the ball to create incredible series of passes that result in spectacular goals, a team of cooks in a kitchen performing at the highest level to create beautiful and delicious food.

Over the course of my life, I’ve had the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with hundreds of amazingly creative people across a multitude of media and experiences. I’m excited to build on that past adventure with a new group of creative collaborators.

It’s a hopeful feeling to be back in the place where I grew up; to work in the artistic media of carpentry, music and language.