What is your first passion?

I was an engineering major at Berkeley before I decided to study Art, and even though I’m a complete fiend for science and technology, I’d have to say that Art is my first passion.  When I say “Art,” I’m not simply talking about painting, drawing, or other traditional mediums.  I believe that creativity, regardless of the outlet, is what makes the world evolve… and what is art but the essence of creativity?  Henry Miller once said “Whosoever uses the creative spirit is an artist.”  In one way or another, we are all artists.  And in many ways, it is Art that has taken us from grunting around in caves gnashing our teeth in the dark to painting the Sistine Chapel, developing a cure for small pox, and discovering potential signs of life on Mars.

How does your design work carry over into your lifestyle?

I’m not sure that it does.  In fact, I think it’s the other way around.  Since career day in high school, I never really thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up so much as how I wanted to be when I grew up.  That is to say, what kind of person will I be?  In what kind of home will I live?  What kind of travels will I have?  What kind of things will I create?  What kind of person will I be?  It’s these types of musings that have informed on most, if not all, of the decisions in my life – decisions that have landed me where I am today.  So, you could say that becoming an artist/designer/entrepreneur and the work I do as all of these things, is more a result of my lifestyle.  Or more plainly, my lifestyle has carried over into my work.

Why do you express yourself through design?

I don’t feel that I choose to express myself solely through design or art.  I like to think that we all express ourselves in everything that we do.  From the way we dress, to the books we read, to our handwriting, to our cooking… etc.  Everything that is of us is unique to us, and therefore an expression of us.  However, some people are a bit more severe and a bit more obsessive compulsive about it than others.  These people, like myself, tend to end up becoming artists of some sort.  I have noticed though, that the older I get, the more subtle my forms of self-expression have become.

What drives you?

There are so many people out there on this planet, doing so many amazing and wonderful things… I would hate to think that I didn’t try to shine as bright as I could in order to leave this world a little better than when I entered it.  I still don’t know what that entails for me exactly, but I have a feeling I’ll figure that out along the way.

What makes your design work fulfilling?

In anything I do, fulfillment is found when others find what I’ve done at worst useful and at best inspiring

~December 2008 – Hawaii RED Magazine