Monday, October 6, 2025

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

PROACTIVE 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.


STATEMENT 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

1. & 2.  The Cat and the Coup videogame is an eccentric historiography of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Iranian coup. It was made in collaboration with USC Games' Professor of Practice, Peter Brinson,.

3. Proposal for  the Farhang Foundation's mural competition.


4. Ashen Aspen, of my Bani Adam series,was a public art project commissioned by the commercial core in Aspen, Colorado.      



5. When Summer Falls 



6.  This spiral staircase,  commissioned by Artist Pamela  Joseph for her home in Aspen, Colorado, features an inlaid lower landing that echoes the curve of the staircase, creating the illusion of ever descending space.



7. The Lego filter for my Body Scrub device, coded by Todd Furmanski, debuted at Rhythms and Vision 2, an part of an Arts and Humanities initiative at USC.  It was ultimately installed in a long-term exhibit at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester New York from 2013-2018.

 
8. Gender ID, is a live performance by Stephen Hues who uses the Body Scrub device and a custom filter made of  the 32+ symbols for gender identification.  Music by Nine Inch Nails.


9. Originally made for my essay "The Hegimonic Bias of DJ Lance Rock"- later expanding its scope to an analysis of Yo Gabba Gabba, the phenominal kids program which he hosts. 
    


10. Self portrait to mark the anniversary of my 50th lap around the Sun.