We are very fortunate to have the most creative guy on mother earth working with us in our research and development studio.
HB: You are clearly an artistically minded guy. do you feel like there were any specific experiences that contributed to the development of “Ted the artist?”
TED: Arriving at the university was a major awakening artistically. I had never thought art to be scholastic. I thought you just woke up and some magic influence blessed you with artistic relevance and guidance. I found this not true. The level of research and competition was extreme, exciting, and inspiring. The pursuit of artistic excellence became, for three years, a 24/7 emotional high.
HB: Was there anyone in your life that you consider a mentor?
TED: I have had several mentors. Many did not even know they were, some were inspirational and others motivated me by their negativity. The negative ones created my feelings of “oh, yeah!”
HB: I am continually amazed by your ability to produce unique designs when it seems that every creative option has been exhausted. Where do you find that inspiration?
TED: I have wondered that too! Once an artist can successfully suppress his instinctual self-criticism, it just happens. It is almost impossible to answer that because the inspiration is literally everywhere I look.
HB: Why steel? you work with many materials but steel is obviously the medium that you have mastered. Why?
TED: I originally worked with plastics, neon, and wood. Each of these media has an inherant weakness the artist has to work around. At first I thought steel was cold and saw limitations based on my lack of technical knowlege. Discovering blacksmithing in 1975 has vastly expanded my visual vocabulary and changed my perception of steel. It is a fantastically versatile medium with unlimited creative possibility.
