Shoji Sculptures

I’ve spent about ten years developing this particular style of form work. I was originally inspired by Asian lantern sculptures, but instead of bamboo strips and rice paper, I use steel wire, solder, cheese cloth, and mulberry paper. Mulberry paper is used in Japanese Shoji screens, so I often refer to these as Shoji sculptures.

They’re lightweight yet surprisingly strong and durable. Some have lights inside, but they all have a translucency that catches the light. They can change dramatically from hour to hour in a sunny room.

The challenge is using an economy of line to create interesting forms that both celebrate the beauty of Nature yet remain structurally sound.

Wire work complete.

Cheesecloth stage completed.

Paper layer finished being glued to the cheesecloth.

Pen & ink sketch blown up to life size, with the metal framework starting to take shape.

Wire work completed and thoroughly washed to remove the flux from the soldering process.

Finished lion.

Small study model for the humpback whale.

Giant Leaf Insect

Leafy Sea Dragon

Star Chart Mural

Mural for a family of Star Trek fans.

Inspired by the stellar cartography lab on the USS Enterprise-D. Everyone in that family is as much of a nerd as I am, so I made sure to include points of interest from all generations of Trek, from the original series through TNG, DS9, Voyager, as well as Enterprise and the movies.

I ended up converting the surrounding architecture and cabinets into "elements of Federation technology," complete with location tags and isolinear chips that matched the aesthetic of the Next Generation-era set dressing. I even signed it with a faux stardate format, in keeping with the theme.

The text and precise shapes were achieved using a Cricut vinyl cutting machine and a great deal of patience and careful planning.

That tiny turquoise rectangle towards the bottom represents what we're looking at in the mural. The galaxy sure is a big place!

This zoomed-in view of our sun's neighborhood is actually a disguised access panel for house hardware:

Completed stardate 2405.24 (May 24, 2024... did I mention I was a huge nerd?)

Location tag. Appears on panels and equipment throughout modern Trek. Too small to read onscreen, they usually conceal a joke:

Scuba Driveway

A family wanted to commemorate their love of scuba diving and the various sea creatures they’ve encountered on their underwater outings.

Each family member got to request their favorite animals.

View from the Driveway

Panorama

Anemone with Clown Fish

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

Lauwiliwilinukunuku'oi'oi

Sea Otter

Leafy Sea Dragon

Peacock Mantis Shrimp

Humpback Whales

Manta Rays

Sea Serpent

Jungle Mural

Public art commissioned by the Redwood City Parks and Arts Foundation.

Paint sketch on a model I built of the wall and boxes.

Octopus Mural

Exterior mural in a Los Altos residential backyard. The client wanted a mural to surprise and delight visitors. They requested an octopus that stared back with an intelligent, almost benevolent gaze.

Bonus feature: the eyes appear to follow you wherever you stand in the backyard.

Kids & Books

Public art commissioned by the Redwood City Parks and Arts Foundation. Four (or five, depending on how you count them) utility boxes located at the intersection of Jefferson Rd and Middlefield Ave in downtown Redwood City.

The boxes sit on the edge of the parking lot of the public library and celebrate the various ways books enrich the lives of children.

Study model of the site.

The original appearance of the boxes.

Because the utility boxes were weirdly shaped, with odd little vents and doodads sticking out, and because they were in an odd arrangement relative to one another, I needed precise and accurate models just to figure out what I wanted to paint on them.

The final design was literally worked out in miniature on the study model.

Each piece within the study model was photographed carefully from each side. Those photos were scaled up and turned into line art, then printed out 1:1, rolled up, and labeled. These were used to transfer the line art quickly and directly onto the boxes, a huge time saver. In the photo you see rolls for each side of the Poppa monster and the smaller Kid monster.

Here all the boxes have been cleaned and primed with white primer.

This shows the first panel taped to the front of the Poppa monster. I had traced the line art on the back of each sheet of paper with graphite, so all I had to do was rub across the front with a flat tool and the graphite on the back was instantly transferred to the surface of the box.

Here you can see each side of the Poppa monster has been transferred from the paper sheets to the box.

Underwater Bathroom Mural

Combines 2-dimensional painting and 3-dimensional elements with *trompe-l'oeil* transitions between the two. Some of the coral was purchased from an aquarium-supply shop, but most of it was created custom for the project.

Phoenix Rising

3ft x 4.5 ft

Japanese shoji paper and cheesecloth over steel wire armature and aluminum frame. Designed to be presentable either with or without internal lighting.

Temple Fragment

3 ft x 2.5 ft, Mixed media.

Special sculpture to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of Three Degrees, an annual dance party. The symbols around the edge represent each year's theme (Dragonflies, Lotus, Butterflies, Sun & Moon, Draco, Hummingbirds, Golden Rabbit, Chrysalis, Phoenix Rising, Web of Indra). Built to resemble a fragment of an ancient temple, long-lost beneath the sea.

Hummingbirds

Golden-tailed Sapphire

White-necked Jacobin

Marvelous Spatule Tail

Chestnut-breasted Coronet

Long-tailed Sylph

Mirrorball Unicorn

21 in tall

Rearing unicorn contains over 800 individual mirrored squares. The tail, mane, and horn are designed to detach for storage in custom storage box.

Mirrorball Pegasus

Titania

30 inches tall.

From A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Titania is Queen of the Fae, ruler of the Land of Fairie.

Wicked Witch of the West

23 inches tall.

Margaret Hamilton’s memorable character from the 1939 MGM production of The Wizard of Oz.

Triumph of Light

21 inches tall.

Commissioned piece inspired by an historical statue from San Francisco’s past that once marked the geographical center of the city. It depicts Lady Liberty defeating the forces of despotism.