Here's a quick sketch of a project in our queue that we're super excited about. It's an outdoor kinetic sculpture that will sit at the entrance of an amazing home in Bridgehampton, New York. Each arm will rotate independently, and the area's coastal breezes should create plenty of movement.
Memorial Day Reflections
Happy Memorial Day! We love a good three-day weekend around here. And Memorial Day weekend has extra significance for Matt and his family.
Nine years ago, Matt moved from Houston to Portland with his wife and baby daughter. They were eager to get established in their new city. About four weeks after the move—amid the hunt for the perfect work studio (Matt’s not one to compromise)—he woke up one morning with tingly hands and feet. As the week progressed, the tingling worked its way up his limbs, and by the end of the week, he had trouble walking and lifting his arms. Something was very wrong.
It was Memorial Day weekend nine years ago that Matt was admitted to the ER for Guillain- Barre Syndrome, an unusual autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the nervous system, causing temporary paralysis.
He spent the next two months in the hospital and a rehab center, where he was cared for while the Guillain-Barre ran its course. At his lowest, Matt couldn’t walk, lift his arms, grip a toothbrush, or write. He even had trouble chewing, swallowing and digesting food. After time in inpatient rehab, he was sent home in a wheelchair and spent the next two months regaining his strength.
Meanwhile, his wife worked to sustain the aspects of Ekko Mobiles that she could (which was mostly updating potential clients about his progress). Mobile-making is a surprisingly physical endeavor, and they had no idea whether Matt would fully recover, making it was a time of great uncertainty. Even once Matt was home from the hospital, it required patience as he regained his strength and ability to work.
By September, made his first mobile, post-Guillain-Barre. By October, Matt was fully functional. And by November, he found the perfect studio (where he’s still working from today). The rest is history.
So each Memorial Day, before enjoying burgers and potato chips, Matt and his family pause to appreciate good health, modern medicine, Matt's mobile-making abilities, and the joy in everyday life.
Matt and his daughter, nearly nine years ago, learning to walk together.
Science Museum Mobile Progress
We're making good progress on the large custom mobile for the Science Museum of Virginia. The mobile's shapes will be colorful frosted translucent acrylic (in the color scheme pictured here).
We don't want the lovely shapes to get damaged during the building process, so we had a copy of each shape created from scrap acrylic that we're using to ensure the mobile is built and balanced properly. Once Matt is onsite to install the mobile, he'll attach the pristine colorful shapes and fine-tune the balancing.
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Looking forward to staying in touch!
Rendering for Seattle Apartment Building
Here's another project in our queue:
It's a large custom mobile for a high-end apartment building in Seattle. The entire piece includes a series of smaller mobiles that, together, will span about 26 feet long by 5 feet wide. The shapes will be perforated translucent plastic, which will add a canopy of color overhead while maintaining a lightness in the space. As always, stay tuned to see progress pictures!
Ceiling Sculpture Installation
If you were to watch Matt and Ben install a mobile or ceiling sculpture, you might get kinda bored. It's usually several hours of very tedious work.
But in this time lapse video, you can watch 13 hours of work installing a ceiling sculpture in just 25 seconds!
As you can see, there's a whole lot of up and down to hang all those strands properly. Also, pay attention to how the lighting and shadows change as the day progresses. So cool.
Enjoy!
Large Custom Mobile for the Science Museum of Virginia
We've got several really fun projects in the hopper right now, and here's one of them:
This large custom mobile will hang in a new early childhood area of the Science Museum of Virginia. The mobile will feature bright colors to liven the space, and the shapes will be made of a satin translucent acrylic to match a climbing wall in the area. Matt and Ben just might have to bring their families along on this installation!
Ceiling Sculpture Pictures
We're loving these images Ben captured from underneath the ceiling sculpture installation at Niagara Falls last week!
Niagara Falls Medical Center Ceiling Sculpture
Matt and Ben are headed home from New York today, where they finished installing this ceiling sculpture for the Niagara Falls Medical Center. The piece required a lot of on-site assembly, so they put in a long day's work. But they enjoyed seeing how the how much the lighting affected the colored reflections on the wall from day to night.
Matt snapped these pictures on his phone—and you can see Ben trying to capture some non-iPhone pictures in the second image below. We'll get those posted here soon!
Kind Words
You know, we try not to let our self esteem get too wrapped up in our work. But it sure made our day to receive nearly identical e-mails about totally different projects within hours of each other:
"Outstanding conceptual work."
"These are outstanding concepts. Great work!"
We're pretty darn excited about the projects we're lining up right now—stay tuned for details!