STATEMENT

Creativity is best measured by how powerfully it stimulates and inspires us. 

Nature does this without fail.

Artists and storytellers spend a lifetime trying to manifest these qualities.

We call it culture.

What underpins all of my creative acts is a persistent focus on their emotional value. Simply put, I am continually trying to rekindle the awe that I have felt during some of life’s most exceptional moments.

The transformative power of direct experience is a universal phenomenon, even if the meaning we construe from it is entirely personal, and non-transferrable.

DETAILS

ARCHITECTURE

Since 2021, I have been an Architectural Partner at the design firm DIALOG. Prior to this, I was a Senior Principal at HOK and a member of its Board of Directors, from 2017-2021; founding President of RAFT Architects, from 2012-2017; Design Principal at Perkins+Will, from 2006-2012; and Associate Partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, from 1994-2006.

My work has been widely exhibited and published, recognized with more than 50 international design awards—including the prestigious World Architecture Festival.

Some of that work is included on the pages of this website.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Since my training at the Rhode Island School of Design and SACI, in Italy, I have used my camera to celebrate the exceptional beauty of our everyday world, candidly and without embellishment. Much of this work is in private collections, and has been published and exhibited, notably at the International Center of Photography.

I work under the sobriquet Nomade Civilisée, and I am represented by ARTERIAL, based in Toronto. You can also find my images on Instagram.

WRITING

I use writing to record mental meditations—to improve my ability to make sense of human complexity. As a published author and “top writer” in the subjects of Culture, Philosophy, Economics, Politics and Mental Health for the platform Medium, I regularly contribute to more than a dozen publications on a wide range of subjects.

I am currently writing a book about our broken human systems, and how to fix them.

INSTALLATION ART

As an avid participant at Burning Man, I was the lead designer of an interactive light-and-sound installation called the Empyrean Gate which appeared there in 2022 and 2023, as well as at various regional Burns. The first of several planned pieces, it is my opening salvo in the world of immersive, multi-sensory art.