I am neither an artist nor a designer, I work as both. I dedicated 7 years of my life getting a bfa in sculpture and a mfa in 3d design. I have an appreciation and love for both disciplines and feel that one can not survive without the other. The work I do lies adjacent to design and at the same time in opposition to it.   My work challenges the user and makes them question their expectations of something they are familiar with. Through the constant denial of sensible utility I hope to uncover the way furniture communicates. My work is derived from domestic home furniture typologies that are then filtered through the aesthetic and a formal sensibility of minimalism. The pieces, scale, composition, form, color, positioning in a space, and relationship to the body provoke a sense of familiarity.  I allow for signifiers of use, such as a door, shelf, or a drawer, with these elements becoming just enough information for the viewer/user to relate to. By finding a middle ground between art and design, I am not elevating art or design, but regaining control of my own work one object at a time.

Being new to Portland I was interested in project chaboo as a medium to meet new people in the design and art communities. The collaboration was an opportunity for me to take something that was simple and minimal and apply the rules and regulations of the concepts of my own work. In the piece I want to pose questions about utility, form, perception and expectations. I took the minimalist structure and function of the chaboo as a beginning form and then translated it into a case good design that would question the original function of a chaboo.

portrait photos by Jeffrey Johnson