///PROJECTS & COMMISSIONS///

“From Bean to Cup” 8x40x2’. Joint project with the University of Washington and The Starbucks Coffee Company located in the Suzzallo Library on the UW Seattle Campus.

To our Partners in the Trade -

HOLDstudios has completed large-scale projects and commissions across the United States and Canada partnering with clients, art consultants, designers, architects, developers, and institutions to successfully create memorable site specific sculptural works of art on time and on budget. We offer quick turnarounds on fast moving projects and also have the patience and discipline it takes for projects that are years in the making. While we like to partner with you from the beginning, we are also happy to step in and help anywhere along the way that you may see fit or as opportunities arise. We are also able to make large runs of repeatable wall mounted dimensional works perfectly suited for the hospitality industry.

We love the design and creative process and can help develop your project from initial concepts to final installation. We offer free sketches and quotes to get the ball rolling so let us know what you are thinking about and we are happy to bring it to life for you. We are your one stop shop for one of kind works of art for both public and private spaces and we are comfortable working with teams big and small, in person, remote, and onsite worldwide as needed. We crate and freight our projects to your desired location for your install team to handle or we can hand deliver projects depending on the works complexity and installation demands and do it ourselves.

Contact us to see what we can do for you and enjoy some of our awesome past projects below in the meantime.

///PAST PROJECTS///

Pixel Twist - Over 600 hand crafted custom boxes, paint, and hardware, various dimensions. Mountain View, CA.

This was an amazing and complex project for a global tech company in Southern California. We hand built and painted each box. The blue/green boxes are suspended via hardware and wire cable strung up and connected at both the floor and ceiling. We had to propose and source over 2400 components to pull this concept off. As you move though the space the boxes seem to twist and curve. The red and orange boxes have the same concept but are all wall mounted and looks to be twisting through the wall. We drove this work down from Seattle with our tools and set up shop within the space taking several days to complete the installation. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Rainier - Carved wood with Shou Sugi Ban (Yakisugi) inspired finish. Approximately 7x20’. Seattle WA.

This was a thrilling piece to make and is located in downtown Seattle, WA. Each board was hand selected, sorted and then placed. Rainier was then carved into the wood and then treated with fire until the wood was not just burned or scorched, but carbonized giving it the sought after and hard to accomplish protective surface. The piece was broken up into five equal panels that were then delivered and seamlessly installed on site. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Bright Lights of Vegas - Sourced and found items, lights, wood, glass, paint. Las Vegas, NV.

These boxes were constructed and painted in our shop where we wired up the lights to be easily connected by a certified electrician upon installation. The custom boxes were built to fit niches where they could just slide in and be secured on site. Safety glass protects the work from the exuberance of Vegas and the accumulation of dust and debris over time. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Perfect Fit - Rooftop Sculpture, Corten Steel, Tacoma WA.

I was asked to create two durable weather safe sculptures for a new twin towered building in Tacoma WA with a sculpture for each of the rooftop gardens. The two pieces interact with each other with a gulf between them. Each of their forms are a play of what is missing out of the other, still together but facing each other from one rooftop to the other. They are made out of Corten Steel and it was a blast cutting, welding, and grinding the steel to make these forms. They were treated with an acceleration agent to begin the aging/rusting process. I hope and plan to make more of these and build on this body of work. These forms were selected out of a number of sketches I provided to the client. An alternative concept - Party - is included in this gallery as is an alternative base solution we didn’t go with. I love drawing and it is a crucial and exciting part of every project. If I am able to draw it, I am able to understand it. If I am able to understand it, I am able to build it. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Smithed - Hand cut forms, wood, resin, paint. New York.

This project was for a horse centric property based in New York State. The repeating forms are cut out from wood representing a variety of blacksmithing tools associated with horseshoeing and beyond. The freestanding steel sculpture is based on the forms of a horse’s bridle. I think this concept and process is open to endless sorts of variations and subject matter and I really enjoy the relief like feel of the piece. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Delicate Arch - Climbing ropes, carabiners, climbing anchors. Moab, UT.

This was a site specific installation done onsite in the lobby of a hotel just outside the entrance to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. Working with the GC we added a plywood backed wall where they then mounted sandstone tiles. Once ready I transported the work and materials and set up shop in the lobby mapping out and then boring holes into the sandstone, connecting the anchors to the wall and then completing the rope work in the form of one of the park’s, and therefore the world’s, most famous arches. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Husky Connections - 48x48x4” each. Found and fabricated items, wood, paint, each square 48x48x3.5”. Private Student Housing University of Washington, Seattle WA. From the Assemblage Series.

This work continues in the Assemblage Series where I collect artifacts from a certain area that resonates with the specific location the piece will reside. This is a very enjoyable, rewarding, and informing process that deepens my connection to the piece and where it is based. Once I’ve collected a large amount of items I’ll play around with a variety of layouts until arriving at a final composition. To unify the piece, they are often all painted the same color and then I build a custom case setting up a visual language, rhythm and compartments to tell a story. This story is about student life at the University of Washington and all the things this may include. 1861 signifies the founding of the University of Washington and 206 represents the area code of the great Seattle area. These works are a hit with the end users, the clients and their partners commissioning the work, and for me. These are available on a smaller scale seen here or can be large space defining works seen elsewhere on these pages. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Tee Time - 48x144x4”. 20000+tees, paint, and wood. Las Vegas, NV.

This piece was an intense exploration of an exclusive high end golf course out of Las Vegas, Nevada using a delicate yet sturdy process of painting the tees to color and then securing them to a backer board in the same layout of the golf course. While it was finger numbing work, I think the result speaks for itself and was a rewarding meditation in the end. The smaller sections seen below were color and process prototypes for client sign off. Click on the images to enlarge photos.

From Bean to Cup - The University of Washington and The Starbucks Coffee Company at Suzzallo Library. Reclaimed wood, found objects, paint, 8’ x 40’ x 2’. Seattle, WA. From the Assemblage Series.

As a University of Washington graduate and having worked with the Starbucks Coffee Company in the past on various projects, I was approached to create this piece to tell the story of from bean to cup. As this was a joint project between the University of Washington and Starbucks I collected artifacts from both parties and integrated them into this piece to tell their collective story. We built, assembled, and painted the piece in our shop where we created a mock up of the casework that the work would fit into once on site. Using a scissor lift we were able to place each passage into its place, secure it, and move onto the next section illustrating this extraordinary process. Sketching out this project was an important part of the process to get the story right and the lead architect for this project was so taken by the collection of sketches that he pulled a book together outlining the entire process and can be found here. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Princess Grace. Wood, vinyl, 8000 nails, 2 miles of wire, 9’ x 12’. Philadelphia, PA.

This was a very exciting and challenging project not knowing what was possible until l was doing it. As the piece was so large I had to work on it flat and in order to do so had to be suspended over the piece working under me. It certainly turned into a mediation in the end and this piece continues to draw street traffic in as passerby catch a glimpse of Philadelphia’s own Princess Grace. The custom crate was fun to figure out hence the triangulated crate to fit in a standard semi to keep shipping costs down from the West Coast to the East Coast. Click on images to enlarge photos.

Entwined Histories - The Stadium District and The Starbucks Coffee Company. Found objects, reclaimed wood, wood, paint, 60” x 60” x 6”. Tacoma, WA. From the Assemblage Series.

This project was about joining two histories, the city of Tacoma WA and The Starbucks Coffee Company. I was able to visit the Starbucks roasting plant and harvest a number of items to use in this piece. Likewise I explored various shops, antique shops, and locations in Tacoma and blended the two histories together. The large form is based on large saw blades as part of the timber industry coupled with a ring of railroad spikes signifying the railroads and these two industries that facilitated the rise of Tacoma WA along with additional maritime elements that define the region. Click on images to enlarge photos.