Tri-Color Chair
Painted plywood and poplar
18” wide x 38” tall x 25” deep

While I take inspiration from many different public forms in my work, Tri-Color Chair is specifically inspired by the yellow, pill-shaped poles in the subways of New York City. This chair was one in a series of pieces meant to subvert the hyper-functional, but still bright and whimsical, shapes and colors of the urban world. Subway interiors, bike racks, and mailboxes are all designed with a vastly different formal language than our indoor spaces, which in comparison lack movement, joy, and brightness. Despite needing to be weather-proof, child-proof, burglary-proof, easy to clean, durable, and strong, I have found that every city in the world boasts different kinds of amazing bike racks, bus stop benches, and train furniture, all engaging formal language that we rarely see in the home - bright colors, soft curves and edges, weight and mass. The Tri-Color Chair brings into an indoor chair those elements that captivate me so on the street.

Tri-Color Chair is a culmination of many years of work. It was first conceptualized in the summer of 2019, and then further explored for my senior degree project in spring of 2020, although it never came to fruition due to the pandemic. Originally designed as a metal piece, it was redesigned and made in wood during my time at a residency at the Vermont Woodworking School in Winter of 2021. I consider it an expression of my practice so far: art that is functional, sculpture that is furniture - bright, joyful, brazenly so, but elegant and considered.