I've designed and sculpted award-winning masks and puppets for plays, videos, ad campaigns, and more.
Masks
Mask work has always been a passion of mine. I studied masks and clowning under Eli Simon at UC Irvine, but I consider my real education the five years I worked with Rogue Artists Ensemble.
In my time as an ensemble member, I designed, built, and performed with masks in a dozen productions, and in 2008, I shared an LA Drama Critics Circle Award with Patrick Rubio for mask design in Mr. Punch.
Because the production design was modeled after Dave McKean's distinctive illustrations in the original graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, we were honored by a visit by McKean himself, who said he was "a fan of [my] work."
Career highlight? Quite possibly.
Sculpture
In my spare time, I make little clay sculptures. Since 2010, I've been posting new pieces on my Tumblr: Facts & Figures.
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See more posts at Facts & Figures.
Puppets
In addition to sculpting for its own sake, sometimes I get to build puppets for people.
In 2008, I helped build and performed with shadow puppets for a Raveonettes music video directed by Chris Do for Gap, Inc. (watch it here). That same year, I helped teach a mask- and puppet-making workshop at the University of California, Irvine.
For several years, I was a member of Rogue Artists Ensemble, LA's premier avant-garde theater troupe. As an ensemble member, I built and performed with puppets (shadow, hand, bunraku, and more) for over a dozen productions, including the critically-acclaimed adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Mr. Punch.
In 2011, I sculpted a whole cast of puppets for a three-minute stop-motion short. There's more on that here.
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