Installations
During my 25-year architecture career I worked with clients to help them realize dream environments. I design and create batiks as custom furnishings, lighting, or hanging screens to articulate and transform an interior space with luminous, silken brilliance.
Woodwork and carpentry were my path away from an architecture that was institutionally isolated from the act of building. I gravitated to traditional Japanese woodworking, and I spent years creating translucent, sliding screens, called shoji. I made some of them in hand-crafted purity, following the teachings of a Japanese master, Toshio Odate, who wrote detailed books about the techniques. I also designed and built modern interpretations of shoji, always with a respect and a rigor in the craftsman way.
Following my experience making shoji screens I have now developed wood folding screens, called “Paralumes”, that feature a silk batik as a translucent center panel. A custom paralume is an option when commissioning a batik.
I create my batiks using pure silk, with different types and thicknesses corresponding to the artistic intention for a piece as well as its architectural destination. The framing and the installation for each batik is custom designed with hand-crafted details.
Noble Materials : Silk, Linen and Solid Walnut
The borders have delicate, hand-rolled hems, for a subtle edge treatment that is “of a piece” with the silk and color.
Offering soft, colorful transluscence, batiks may be freely hanging in a space or hung 12” in front of a wall with indirect lighting behind them.
