Awards

ACTING HONORS

Ameriprise Financial Twin Cities Ivey Awards

For a few years, very generous and kindly people created and promoted the Twin Cities Ivey Awards, a kind of Oscar-like awards show for the theater communities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Theater artists were nominated, envelopes were opened, and people were presented with shiny trophies. Through an evidently complex perfect storm of circumstances one year I was one of them. I received an Ivey award recognizing me as an emerging artist of note. My feelings about it were as complex as the path that led me there, but I have to admit it was really great to feel special and recognized for a while.

OTHER DRAMATIC HONORS

Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival: "Best MN-Made Feature Film" The System in 2013, I played one of two main protagonists.

Lavender Magazine: "outstanding performance" for my role in Music Lovers by Workhaus Collective in 2010

Lavender Magazine "best show" Shining City at the Jungle Theater 2007. I was in the cast.

City Pages Magazine: Skewed Visions "Artists of the year" 2004. I was a company member

Star Tribune Newspaper: "outstanding performance" for my role in Lobby Hero at the Jungle theater in 2003

Jane Enroth Scholarship for outstanding contribution by an undergrad on the University of Minnesota stage in 1997

VISUAL ART AWARDS AND HONORS

Society of Illustrators The Original Art Exhibition 2021

Humpty Dumpty Lived Near a Wall is a book for Children of all ages written by my friend Derek Hughes and illustrated by me. The year after it was published it was selected to be featured in an exhibition by the Society of Illustrators in New York. It was a great honor and thrill to be noticed by a prestigious institution like S.O.I., and to see my pictures on the same walls as so many brilliant and accomplished artists.
Incidentally, The book itself was also a critical success, getting a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, a rave by Publisher's Weekly and Amazon's Editor's Pick among many other very kindly mentions and write ups.
Humpty Dumpty Lived Near a Wall is published by Penguin Random House. It is available for purchase on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and a whole bunch of other places.

Mystery Build Competition 2010

The Mystery Build Art competition was a marvelous contest in which participants would receive a box of random materials in the mail and then be tasked with creating whatever art work they chose based on a given theme. There were a variety of cash prizes awarded, but the main intent of the contest was to challenge people's creativity. The first time I entered the contest the theme for the entries was to expand upon an already existing work of art. My piece, "Arc of Ophelia" was based on the Pre-Raphealite painting of Ophelia by Arthur Hughes. Contest entries were done by video submission. My cinematography was severely lacking, but nevertheless I managed to score one of the prizes that year.
The making of video can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/EkrqILvCXzQ

Mystery Build Art Competition 2012

The second Mystery Build competition I entered was in 2012. That year the theme was "Somewhere in Time". So naturally, I couldn't resist basing my project on my favorite vintage British science fiction television program. This time around I worked very hard to incorporate kinetic movement in my piece. I spent hours figuring out and finessing my gears and wheels so that bits of the diorama would move and spin in various ways. It was a far from perfect mechanism, but my "Somewhere in Time (and relative dimensions in space) Machine worked after a fashion -just like the infamous device that inspired it. Many awards were given out by Mystery Build recognizing the merits of many different projects, and I won one of them that year.
To see the making of and the working movement the link is here: https://youtu.be/OCj9jpRRrjo

Country Crock Margarine Contest

Some time ago, Country Crock Margarine sponsored a contest where the challenge was to create a sculpture using Country Crock packaging. Inspired by those enameled articulated fish that can be found in antique jewelry cases, I made a jointed fish swimming above a coral reef. To get enough material to execute my design, I bought two grocery bags full of Country Crock margarine. Other materials included wood, craft paper and metal conduit, which I used to make a mechanism that would cause the fish wobble and swim when a handle was turned. I put all the excess margarine into Tupperware tubs and gave it to friends for Christmas. The fish and I made it into USA Today and were even featured on an HGTV show. The last I heard of it, the fish was retired to a case in a conference room at Country Crock headquarters. The prize I won was $10,000.

Crayola Coloring Contest

One of the first contests I entered was the Crayola Coloring Contest. The challenge was to create a work of art in any form using crayola products. The gimmick of the contest was that the contestants were grown ups and the judges were children. My entry was a pop up book illustrating different stories I remembered or liked from my childhood. The stories included the Hobbit, Uncle Remus Stories (which I now realize are problematic, though I didn't know that when they were read to me as a toddler.) and the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake. The prize was a trip to New York city and dinner at the world famous Rainbow Room. I had a fantastic time in New York, but missed the Rainbow Room due to scheduling complications. I still have the certificate which I keep as a momento, though the Rainbow Room has long since closed its doors.