Aiden's bio:

As a boy, I could often be found in the woods behind my house playing in the creek. I would get lost in miniature worlds my imagination created in mossy banks, catching crayfish and marveling at how their seemingly rigid armored bodies could move so gracefully through their environment. And I was always making things. I built forts, carved sticks, made presents for all the people I loved. I attended the Emerson Waldorf School for 12 years where I learned the value of creating new things and became intimately linked to colors and their relationships to one another. I developed a deep connection to wood, learning its grain patterns and how to form it with hand tools. I learned drawing, copper smithing, clay sculpture and much more. 

This led me to pursue a higher education in art at Hampshire College where I focused on metal sculpture, woodworking, bookbinding, printmaking, portrait art and jewelry. I created a thesis show distilling down the beauty of the world around me; it also wove in human connection and the stories/visuals inherent in both. I incorporated all of these concepts into physical pieces you could sit in, hold and behold.  Now I am working full time as an artist in Durham, N.C., making a living doing what I love.    

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Inspiration for my work:  

It’s important to me to focus my creative energy on feeling grateful and seeing the good and beauty in the world. I find people and nature endlessly inspiring … and heart wrenchingly exquisite. I distill down the stunning ornate complexity of a moment into something that can live on through art. Whether the perfect curve of a smiling cheek or a windswept branch, wrinkles in a face that tell the story of every smile and frown, the love or skepticism in a wayward glance, or even the beauty of a rogue insect. To me, there is unfathomable beauty presented to us in every moment as long as we can stay open. Sometimes, the deepest heartbreak shows the clearest love. I don’t simply want to create a beautiful object, but rather a complete organism that is alive and breathing that facilitates an experience with the viewer. Perhaps a feeling of wonder, or a moment of respite that speaks to something deeper, something undeniably true.

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                                                                                                                                                                                         Photo Credit: Eric Brown

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