Wheel Big was built to race in the 2012 Portland Adult Soapbox Derby. The hubless rear wheel measured over 7′ in diameter. Plywood degradation shortened our race day, but it was an extremely fun concept car to roll/ test. With a steel race added to the wear surface of the rim this would be a street worthy vehicle.

Our team won the Best in Engineering prize from the soapbox jury. The race day photos were taken by Mitchell Snyder, who has a terrific photography portfolio that is well worth visiting. Thanks Mitch!

Undaunted is a sixteen foot cedar-strip canoe with cherry gunwales, thwarts and seats. The seats are webbed with rawhide. This project was completed as a student at Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with Stephen Endy, a fellow student. We designed the boat for multi-day river expeditions and built our own mold to meet that criteria.

Another set of sculptures designed by David Kennedy and built in collaboration with Flux Design. These forms are based on the ink calligraphy of the Japanese characters for wisdom and courage.

A Portland businessman with a partner in Kyoto enlisted the services of Heidi McBride to help him redesign his office space and furnish it with new art. Heidi approached David with an idea to create two new pieces, one for Portland and one for Kyoto. As the design advanced the client’s interest in both pieces grew and we made two of each sculpture. Today the art in Portland has matching kin in Japan.

The sculptures are made of intersecting steel plate forms that have been heated and hammered and TIG welded together. The blackened steel sculptures sit on oiled Oregon black walnut bases.

Icarus Rex was built for the 2004 Portland Adult Soapbox Derby. It won first place.

This was a preliminary design for a treehouse that would travel on a cable from the top of a steep hillside out into the surrounding tree canopy. It has not been constructed, yet.

This elk sculpture was conceived by David Kennedy and we crafted it with his assistance. Together we transformed a 12″ tall cardboard model into a 1,500 lb. sculpture. From David’s model we produced a digital model then laser-cut plates of steel to build the larger-than-life size elk. The body is 3/4″ thick steel plate and stands over 8 feet tall. The steel flanks are built up from plasma-cut 1/4″ plate.

David tells his story in this beautifully made video about this project.

The surface was carefully conditioned to allow the steel to rust thoroughly and evenly. Over the next year a heavy red-brown patina will form in the clean air of Central Oregon.

The Argonaut was built for the 2006 Portland Adult Soapbox Derby. It was an extremely fun collaboration with Chris Hornbecker. After attaching cables to the driver’s back in a standing position at the starting line the car unfolded for launch with the driver suspended in a flying, head-first prone position.

The jury awarded this car with the Best Engineering prize.

Drunken Pig (thanks to Sheridan Fruit Company for the namesake sausage) was built for the 2009 Portland Adult Soapbox Derby. Go fast!!

This sculpture is one of several built in collaboration with David Kennedy. David has designed a family of sculptures that explore the graphic and spacial possibilities of the word PEACE as expressed in different languages. We have worked on sculptures in Hebrew, Japanese and Cherokee. They are all studies for future large, public projects.

This sculpture is silicon bronze with a dark plum-brown patina and a hammered surface texture. The letters are notched, interlocked, and TIG welded together. It stands on an oiled walnut base.