Here, we ask a designer to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 35
Occupation: Designer
Hometown: Pasadena, California
Studio location: Los Angeles
Describe what you make: I makes sculpture, site-specific installations, furniture, lighting, and objects—most of which are inspired by nature and its variety of forms, patterns, and shapes.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: A bench designed for a deer. I made it in response to an assignment at RISD fourteen years ago. The piece allowed me to break through the structures of conventional furniture-making and think more openly about what design could be: a means of capturing a poetic idea through the well-crafted and sensitive treatment of a given medium.
The problem your work solves: I often try to combine beauty and timelessness with functionality. I am conscious of the grand traditions of the decorative arts as well as my place here and now. Too often interiors can seem devoid of nature, narrative, meaning, and a human touch. My work strives to imbue objects and installations with my sense of wonder and awe for the natural world, as well as the beauty of the materials I work with.
What you are working on now: Earlier this fall I completed a presentation that featured fourteen years of work in a studio space I recently acquired. With my partner and brother, Ari Wiseman, we installed a range of work in a very raw warehouse building, prior to commencing renovations. It was a tremendous opportunity to see the range and cohesiveness of the past decade and to share it with friends and family in Los Angeles, where I had not shown my work before until now.
