Made by Ade

My philosophy on art...

Beauty is hiding in plain sight waiting to be discovered. That’s what I believe and it is why I embrace lo-fi techniques and non-traditional methods. Whether it is shipping labels, Legos, coffee stirrers, pinhole cameras, or black and white tvs, I am always looking for ways to remix old ideas in new ways. High tech gear has a tendency to remove the beautiful imperfections that makes art feel like it was created by a human. Expensive gear makes you cautious because you are worried about breaking it. So I try to build my own tools or hack existing tools to suit my needs. I always have experimental projects that I am working on and the best way to see what is happening in my studio is following my @Ade3 Instagram account.

Galleries

Infestation Insect Prints

The artwork from the Infestation Project uses a new process I invented to create prints directly from the corpses of dead insects. Yes, it’s a bit weird but stick with me. I had been perfecting the technique over a wouple years before launching the Infestation on Kickstarter. Prints are available for sale on my Etsy store.

View Project

Graffiti Animation

I create an animation loop made of 15 frames or so. Each frame becomes a sticker that finds a home in the urban landscape. I take a photo of the graffiti and string the photos back into an animation. You can watch the videos on this Graffiti Animation YouTube playlist

Inner Demons

I called this series “Inner Demons” because my process resembled a self-administered Rorschach test. I let drops of alcohol fall on a piece of thermal paper (otherwise known as a shipping label) and then stared at it until it told me what it wanted to be. Apparently there were skulls, zombies, scary masks, and various disfigured heads inside me trying to escape. The collection can be viewed in this gallery.

Money Printer Camera

I combined a Raspberry Pi and a portable receipt printer to create a camera that prints money. You can watch a video of the camera in action here.

Polaroid Receipt Camera

I made a digital Polaroid camera that combines a receipt printer with a Raspberry Pi. To build it I took an old Polaroid Minute Maker camera, stripped out its guts, and replaced the innards with a digital camera, an e-ink display, a receipt printer, and an SNES controller to operate the camera. You can read about the digital receipt printer polaroid camera here.

Coffee Stirrer Camera

I made a camera made of 23,248 coffee stirrers, powered by a Raspberry Pi, and controlled with a Nintendo controller. It is one of the strangest cameras and the photos it takes are equally unique. You can read the entire story here.

Free Postcard Art

I enjoy mailing art to people. I’ve sent over 300 pieces so far. You can see them in the postcard section of this site. If you want to get on my mailing list, reach out.

Baby Powder Graffiti

For this project I used baby powder and other non-destructive techniques to create graffiti. I love the idea of artwork that doesn’t last long. It’s there one moment and gone the next. You can view a gallery of this art here.

Lego Pinhole Camera

My first experience going viral happened after I created a medium format pinhole camera out of Legos. You can read about it here. It made the rounds on popular websites in 2001 and even got featured in a book.

Camera Drawing Animation

I created software that recorded my pencil as I drew dozens of Cameras from my collection. By replaying my pencil’s movement I was able to create animations of the cameras being redrawn. In the first iteration of my software I created drawings of my favorite Star Wars characters.

Illustrations

I draw all the illustrations in my books. The technique I use is a combinatino of ink and watercolor. You can view some of my illustrations in this gallery.

Pottery

It’s been a few years but I was a prolific potter in college. It helped me make some extra money but more importantly it was a relaxing stress reliever. You can view some of my pots in this pottery gallery.

Book Shelf Photos

This is a gallery of photos of my book shelves. I love to read and I love to collect toys and trinkets. It makes my home office a fun place to work and makes for a nice backdrop on video calls.

Pine Cones

Art Shows

I’ve done a handful of art shows over the years. Here is a list of Shows and Exhibitions I have participated in.