Artwork
Art is something I like do to relax, get a little me time and make some money. I seem to have 3 styles of paintings. The first is realistic. The second is illustrative. and the third is… my crazy creative style. Click here to see all paintings for sale.
Paintings
I’ve always painted. In fact, my mom still has art work from my pre-kindergarten days hanging in her office. In high school I entered a contest and turned an old junk car into a rolling mural. I also spent countless hours painting at my parents’ art studio… where I even fooled a few producers in thinking I was a college art student. Then when I finally got to collage for relaxation and enjoyment, I would take up a brush. So I guess you could say painting and creating has always been a part of my life and I’ve always enjoyed making things-I’m not good at sitting still.
I still paint whenever I get a change, and a number of these painting are available for purchase. If one speaks to you, I’d be honored for it to find a place in your home.
Below is my highschool work i did at Churchill and Interlochen.
Sets
Building sets was part of everyday life growing up. My parents owned Artistic Studios, where they built sets for television, commercials, and feature films, so after school I usually headed straight to the shop. Looking back, that’s where I learned to build things, paint and work with my hands. It was pretty neat to see something I’d help build show up on TV. Probably that’s where my love for filmmaking really began.
One thing I learned early is that most sets are temporary. We’d spend days or even weeks building the sets and gathering props, install it at a studio, watch it being filmed, then tear everything down and move on to the next project. We were usually too busy to stop and take pictures, so these are a few of the sets that managed to survive. All great memories.
Sculpture
I Started REALLY sculpting when I went to Interlochen High School. I had a sculpting class that was 3 hours a day for the year. Mrs. Parsons really explained to us how to sculpt and see things in 3D. I did do a bunch of sculpting at Artistic, but after Interlochen I believe I’m a better sculpture. How could you not sculpting every day?
Graphic Design
I put the entire Adobe Suite to work. Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, Premiere Pro and Aftereffects. I nasally start with hand drawings then finalize them and put them to scale in the computer.
I like to use frame forge to do 3D storyboards.
This project started with a family trip to Frankenmuth in Michigan. While walking through an art gallery, my step-dad stopped to admire a beautiful Japanese-inspired wood chime. It stood about a foot tall and was priced at around $8000. I looked at him and said, “ If you really like it, I can build one for your backyard.”
He decided not to buy the one in the gallery.
About a year later, my mom called and said,”Do you remember that wind chime we saw last year? Ed’s birthday is coming up soon.”
Challenge accepted
What started as a 1 foot sculpture turned into a 14 foot tall 12 foot wide backyard wind chime with three massive gongs. I built it in my shop in Grand Rapids, hauled it to North Branch, and assembled it in the backyard as a birthday surprise!
Dad loved it…
Wind Chime
I started doing them with a friend Paul OcOnner in LA and then I got hooked. The only bummer is mixing the mud! Thank God for Clyde he mixed the mud for the pool house and I poured, sculpted and got rid of the bubbles. I believe it was 36 100lb bags.
Concrete Counter Tops
Built a loft
I bought an old 7000 ft.² carriage warehouse in Grand Rapids, Michigan with the idea of turning it into my home, office, and shop. It took about a year and a half to gut the building before I could really start putting it back together-and yes, I lived there through the whole thing. From the beginning, the dust was so bad that I lived in a small pup tent inside this large building. Most of the original windows had been covered over with doors since the building was built in 1928. There was a lot of work ahead of me, but I loved it all.. I did nearly everything myself except for electrical, heating, and cooling. I took down my tent around Christmas and decided to have a New Year’s party. I spent my time laying plywood over the holes in the floor, so nobody would disappear into the level below. Priorities…. When spring finally came, I power washed the inside of the building to get rid of all the construction dust. Eventually, that old warehouse became my home, office, and shop exactly as I had pictured it when I first walked through the door.
Years later, I sold the building and moved to Atlanta. And wouldn’t you know it-the part I spent all the time rebuilding was eventually torn down. Go figure!
