BIO
Arunas is a self-taught artist and a retired professor of Industrial Design at Western Washington University where he spent 33 years torturing his loyal students with solving the world’s problems. In order to maintain his academic sanity he began weaving metal baskets and metal quilts and schlepped his art to festivals throughout the West. When things got too rainy, he packed up the family and headed south of the border to dry out. Educationally, he got a few degrees from Montana State University and the University of Illinois. Prior to teaching, Arunas worked for Haworth designing office furniture, a Chicago architectural firm, and has consulted on many products from carbon fiber snowshoes to hog feeders.
Industrial ‘raw’ materials are discarded daily around us and often in large volumes. Finding a steady source of reusable waste and creatively incorporating it into my art brings me great satisfaction. My mind and hands are heavily exercised as I search for new materials to reclaim and experiment with new applications and methods of fabrication. Most of my work is done three dimensionally and is dictated by the limitations and nature of the material. Although the days of roaming the landfills and beachcombing the dumps are gone, the garbage continues to flow. Finding a way to intercept it, tame it, and give it new life is a constant challenge.