Let's get positively verbose, together.
I have spent my life learning new technologies, from the times when computers had literally only two colors, to today when every color seen or unseen seems possible. I understand technology on a truly fundamental level, in a way where even the newest technology seems to come naturally to me: just the latest iteration of a pattern of continual iterations.
Still, knowing the technology is only a start. The true joy of technology is using it to create - bringing something into existence from seeming nothingness. Having the power to create is unlike anything else, and over time has become my primary objective in life.
A rare picture of Carl Walls, courtesy of
Multimedia Student Lillian Calixto, & crew
That said, creating using technology is no different from that technology itself - everything created is built upon the foundation of what came before. Everything around us informs and inspires everything we bring forth through our efforts.
Our past creations then form a foundation for what we are as a creator - what our future creations can stand upon. It is for that reason a portfolio has been an essential tool for displaying and determining what an artist has and can do in the future. In this age of advanced technology, this fact is no different - only the technology used to create and display it differs.
On this page, built upon my decades of knowledge and experience creating worlds of hypertext, I have gathered a few curated highlights of my many works over years spent growing and building my various tools of technological creation. I hope it will provide some insight into who I am as a creator, and perhaps if we are truly lucky, this will spark some insight and reflection on who you are as a creator, as well. After all: we are all creators, whether you know it, or not.
I build my works upon these foundations:
Photography
Video Production
Web Development
The greatest ideal, in my opinion, is to balance the aesthetics of art with the practical considerations of commercial products. To create something which is pleasing to the eye, yet serves a useful and distinct purpose.
To accomplish this, I often will spend my time when not working, examining the worlds of art and commerce with a camera - freezing a moment that can be considered and explored for meaning. This then can inform my purely commercial endeavors, imbuing them with just the right touch needed to satisfy the senses.
Click on the categories below to see curated examples of my photographic work, and how the subjects inform my understanding that can be applied to other work. Then, click on each image to learn more about how they inform my aesthetic.
To understand how to sculpt and develop the aesthetic of art, it can be helpful to first examine the most basic element of beauty all around us - the land itself. Below, you will find a few examples of my favorite landscape subject, the Rocky Mountains. (Colorado, United States and Alberta, Canada)
Infamous filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky stated that "Cinema is a Mosaic made with Time." In that way, it is easy to see how the effect of a single image on an audience is greatly amplified when applied to a vast array of images. Even more so, how those images are arranged in time is like adding a fourth dimension to the work, expanding and deepening the opportunities to add meaning and direct an audience to a desired effect.
The act of placing these images and sounds in a specific order, to create an additional meaning from the very act of placing them in relation to each other in time, often referred to as the Kuleshov Effect, is an incredible power. When used appropriately, you can precisely combine the elements you create as simple ingredients, with the finished product having an exponentially greater effect on your intended audience than the parts would have had individually.
I have arranged below some samples of my work, to demonstrate the flexibility of what I create for the audeinces on different mediums.
This commercial served as the culmination of a campaign to recruit tribal members to return to their rural communities as doctors. I combined file footage featuring this student over his time at OSU, with new interview and B-Roll footage, to show the doctors of tomorrow exactly who they could become.
This commercial aired nationally, during OSU Sports games.
Let's talk about how I, or my amazing network of students, can help make that happen for you