Monday, October 6, 2025

Call for Artists; LA General Hospital, Vermont Corridor, Site 2

PRACTIVE METHODOLOGY

Over nearly three decades of professional experience, I have completed a wide range of long-term, interdisciplinary projects that bridge art, design, and research. As a research-based artist, my process aligns more closely with that of a designer than a traditional fine artist—it is iterative, methodical, and grounded in inquiry. Articulating the rationale behind creative decisions is essential to earning the trust of collaborators and stakeholders.


My workflow cycles through research, prototyping, implementation, and evaluation, allowing me to move from development to production with confidence. While I value structure and clarity, I also remain responsive to new insights that may shift a project’s direction or meaning.


By applying my expertise in narrative architecture, I create emotionally evocative environments—whether building multisensory virtual worlds for cultural training, employing spatial editing of video archives to represent a path to enlightenment, or collaging elements from 11th–14th century illustrated manuscripts to teach 20th-century history. These works are innovative and impactful because they engage both intellect and emotion, making learning and retention more intuitive and memorable.


STATEMENTS of INTEREST

This project interests me because it brings art into the public sphere as an instrument of care, connection, and civic imagination. My artistic practice has long been socially engaged — from projects responding to Iran’s struggle for freedom to collaborative works addressing community resilience here in Los Angeles. Across these efforts, I’ve learned that art can serve as both witness and bridge: it can make complex social realities visible, and in doing so, help people feel less alone within them.

The Vermont Corridor building, which unites departments of health and family services, embodies the same impulse toward empathy and healing. I’m drawn to how a mural here could humanize a civic space — transforming it from a site of bureaucracy into one of welcome and recognition. Having worked in cross-cultural and community contexts, I approach each project as a dialogue: listening first, then building visual narratives that reflect shared experience.

In Koreatown, a neighborhood defined by endurance and diversity, I see an opportunity to honor the resilience that sustains Los Angeles itself. For me, public art is not just expression — it is an act of solidarity, a visible affirmation of care within the urban fabric.


RESUME


PORTFOLIO

The Cat and the Coup videogame is an eccentric historiography of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Iranian coup. You can see a walkthrough with voice over here: https://vimeo.com/75619156

Completed: 2012
Budget: $3K USC Grants
Collaborators: Peter Brinson and USC Student
Medium: Documentary Videogame

This was my unsuccessful proposal to the Farhang Foundation's mural competition.
Proposal completed: 2019

Ashen Aspen is part of the Bani Adam series and is inspired by a 13th-century Persian poem by Saadi The poem calls humans limbs of one body, all created equal, and when one limb is hurt, the whole body shall be in unease. It therefore concludes that one not touched by the pain of others cannot be called a human.

Completed: 1996
Budget: $1500
Client: City of Aspen,Commercial Core Commission
Medium: Digital Photography, Offset print on vinyl
Location: Downtown, Aspen, Colorado

When Summer Falls is also part of the the Bani Adam series.  You can see the animation here

Completed: 1999
Medium: 3D Computer Animation

A spiral staircase features an inlaid lower landing that echoes the curve of the staircase, creating the illusion of ever descending space.

Completed 1992
Budget: ~ $75K
Collaboration: under the supervision of contractor Jack LaCroix, a team of craftsmen built it.
Client: Pamela Joseph
Medium: 3D computer model, Staircase is Walnut, Oak, and Redwood, with steel and leather handrail
Location: Private residence in Aspen, Colorado

Lego, a Body Scrub filter debuted at Vision and Voices, an Art and Humanities initiative at USC.   A video of Lego in use at this event can be seen here.  This interactive installation was completed in 2013.
Lego was in a longterm exhibit at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester New Yorkfrom 2013-2018.
Coding by Todd Furmanski
 

Gender ID, is a live performance utilizing the Body Scrub device.  It uses a custom filter of  the 32 symbols for gender identifiction.  A sample scene can be seen here.  And more information about the proposed performance, including a simulaton can be seen here.  A proposal for the Red Cat's juried New peformances series  was completed in 2018.
Performance by Stephen Hues,
Coding by Todd Furmanski
Music by Trent Reznor


9.

Completed: 2017
Medium: Digital Collage
Description: I made this image for my essay "The Hegimonic Bias of DJ Lance Rock"- later expanding its scope to an analysius of Yo Gabba Gabba, the phenominal kids program which he hosts. 
Completed: 2016
Medium: Multimedia
Description: Self portrait to mark the anniversary of my 50th lap around the Sun.