What do you do for Urban Outfitters?
I am the District Display Artist for New York. So much of the Urban experience has to do with the interaction and aesthetic of the store as an entity: how people move through space, their reaction to their environment, guiding the viewers eye through it as a single composition while maintaining specific points of rest. It's pretty easy to overwhelm a person with monumental installations so there has to be a visual break. I guess I am in charge of making sure the stores maintain that balance, among other things. I try to keep everyone constantly inspired.
What is the most fun aspect of your job?
Figuring out how to make something amazing out of something common. Making impossible things possible. The people. I work with some of the most compelling, talented and creative people in the world. Together we do some pretty astonishing things. All of us are artists, designers, architects, theorists, fashion visionaries, etc. and contribute that to what we do on a daily basis, creating a multifaceted vision. Collaboration is always exciting.
How did you end up where you are?
I am undeniably a product of my upbringing. I grew up obsessively creating things. Then I went to art school. I worked as a graphic designer for a while, co-owned an independent clothing label, and a silkscreen company. But when it comes down to it I guess first and foremost I've always been doing art. My installations and works have been shown all over (Centre Pompidou in Paris, Coimbra Botanical Gardens in Portugal, Berkeley Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art). Then when I came to New York, I applied at Urban and they hired me.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up?
I wanted to be a scientist, or rather an inventor. When I was a kid I took apart pretty much every appliance in our house. I still remember the look on my moms face when I took apart our home phone (this was before cell phones). It was not a look of joy.
Then I moved on to creating things. When I was nine, my friend and I made a "speed boat" out of old car inner tubes, rope and a huge pile of scrap wood. The thing barely floated and was powered by an old bicycle that we attached wood flippers to. We pedaled it out to the island in Peanut Lake, a small leech infested lake outside of town. We single-handedly proved wrong the myth of the island being populated by little green men. All we found were some snakes and a ton of mosquitoes.
Next, we tried our hand at flight. We found out quickly that you cannot in fact apply the same techniques to boat building as to airplane building. Apparently the physics of buoyancy and lift are two separate forces that cannot be interchanged. In other words, nothing took flight except for our imaginations.
Where did you grow up? What's it like?
I grew up in a small town in the mountains of Colorado. It's pretty amazing, well it used to be, it's changed a lot. The people that lived there were old hippies and those who wanted to drop out of society, become one with the earth mother. Our house was an old miner's house. We had a single wood potbelly stove in the middle to heat us through the winter. We would take turns getting up before the sun to start the fire so by the time everyone else got out of bed they could all be warm. You would start with pine because that catches fire the easiest, then switch to oak because that burns the hottest. My sister and I would always hold our pants up to the stove in the morning so they would be warm when we put them on. There's no worse way to start the day than with a cold pair of jeans.
You make an events newsletter for your coworkers,
called The Visual Top 10. What's it all about?
The Visual Top 10 is my list of the top 10 things to do in New York every weekend. I wanted everyone to have a well rounded and comprehensive view of what the contemporary art and music world had to offer. Another reason is that it seems like everyone who works for Urban is doing really cool things on their own, whether that be music, art, fashion or whatever, so I want to make sure that everyone knows about it. It's amazing how much everyone supports one another. Just last week Hector Serna from the Broadway store had an art opening at By and By and there must have been 50 people from Urban show up. Some people even drove in from Philly to go. It's pretty rad.
Who is your favorite artist?
Impossible.
Name your five current favorite songs:
· Electrelane "Suitcase"
· Sibylle Baier "I lost something in the hills"
· Silver Apples "I have known love"
· Pterodactyl "Chx Bx"
· Anything Micheal Rother had anything to do with (Neu!, Kraftwerk, Harmonia, etc)
· Jacques Dutronc "Le Responsable"
I know that was six. I cheated again.
What's the last art show/movie/concert you saw that you found really inspiring?
Not necessarily the most recent but it's fresh in my mind because I was just talking about it, but last summer I went to see Philip Glass and his ensemble play live along with the a projection of Godfrey Reggio's "Powaqqatsi" in the Prospect Park Bandshell. They also had the Brooklyn Youth Chorus sing at the apex. Super powerful. It was amazing.
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