Working with metals, computer coding and animation since the mid-eighties, my initial training as a silver/gold-smith started through apprenticeships with designers, metal-smiths, master goldsmiths and production jeweller’s, while my graphic design and coding foundation formed in art school.  I was introduced to glass as an artistic medium in 2004. Through developing bodies of work incorporating metal, glass and electronics I’ve been awarded scholarships at The Corning Museum of Glass, Pilchuck Glass School and The Penland school of Crafts. My work has been featured at SOFA New York, Culture Canada, Metalsmith Magazine, The Toronto Design Exchange, and the Memphis Metal Museum. More recently I’ve been awarded residencies at Gullkistan Centre for Creative People Iceland, Nes artist residency Iceland, and the Ayatana SciArt Research Program in Ottawa.  

Handmade Portraits: Nanopod from Etsy on Vimeo.

Life and how we as Human beings interact with it and respond to it, has always fascinated me. Through my own representational language, be it obvious or obscure, I wish to engage the psyche. By employing that which may be real or imagined, I am suggesting a believable structure, yet one not necessarily rational.

Increasingly my practice employs temporal and narrative explorations of self/identity. Continually exploring new materials and tools alongside my metal-smithing, glass and coding background.
Narrative allows me to show imagined futures, reconstructed or mediated pasts that conjecture the implications technology, science and politics have on self/identity, our shared environment through a multi-disciplinary approach, often combining tactile, sculptural forms, and audio.

Creating immersive environments, unnatural History Dioramas, and performative, wearable structures. My one of a kind ‘jewelry’  often serve as maquettes and experiments towards larger sculptural work.

If we can say that the world of science is synonymous with truth and the world of art with that of fiction, I want to tread a middle ground that is unusual and seemingly beyond belief, yet also familiar.

Personal website: www,toscateran.com

Toronto studio: http://www.nanopod.tv

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nanotopia

Nano-Blog: http://www.nanopod.me