Ori-hagane or "folded-steel" sculpture

I coined the term, Ori-hagane, or "folded-steel" sculptures in Japanese to describe

my art work in powder-coated stainless steel. Inspired by the works of Calder, the Japanese art of Origami (paper folding), and the PNW tradition of carving, my innovation is to build three-dimensional sculptures, comprised of two-dimensional sheets, that involve no welding and are fitted together with slits. I start with a conceptual drawing of the sculpture in different projections, and integrate my engineering training, to ensure that the design of the sculpture is structurally sound and stable.   I then make a maquette out of cardboard to physically test out the viability of the sculpture, translate the parts into engineering drawings, having taught myself how to generate machine-readable CAD drawings, and have parts cut into form using a commercial water-jet cutter. Then, I grind down the edges, and test the assembly. Finally, I have the parts powder-coated before assembling them into the sculptures included in this submission. In this process, I am making three-dimensional sculptures using two-dimensional building blocks, that are complex (Pakxi), abstract (Dancing Moons), capture movement (Ailey Dancers) , explore the Japanese concept of negative space or Notan (Untitled #1), explore poetry (The eye), and reflect my values (Love, Peace, Just.ice).