Procter & Gamble ArtsWave Campaign 2025

As part of their yearly fundraising campaign for ArtsWave in Cincinnati, Procter and Gamble brought me on (via AGAR) to create five separate pieces for five different office locations around Cincinnati. AGAR was able to provide three large picture frames, and the two other pieces were more site-specific.

Creating string art inside of a frame using nails as attachment points is something that has been thoroughly explored by many other artists, and for this reason I’ve largely avoided doing anything of that nature. So, when asked to do this project reluctant to even use the gold frames offered by AGAR. I relented under the personal understanding that I would force myself to find new techniques or ideas in this well-explored medium.

Of the frames, one was about 8ft tall and the other two were about 5ft tall each. After conducting some tests, I landed on three avenues to explore: layering, distortion of a chaotic weave, and perspective/perception manipulation. Each of these produced promising results and will be explored more in the future.

For the Mason office, I was provided with an unusually shaped hexagon frame. This piece stood upright, allowing people to walk inside and get a different experience. The weaving pattern for this piece was meant to represent the inevitable blending of people races culture and ideas across a diverse and varied company. On the interior wall, opposite the entranceway, metallic yarn was draped creating the look almost like ripples on the surface of water. Good ideas from great cooperation can often make a big splash, something P&G knows something about.

For the P&G global office I was asked to active the skyway, a bridge between the two different office buildings that also spans over a road. This was especially tough because of a myriad of restrictions (short install time, all movements chaperoned, sprinkler system placement, HVAC vents, stainless steel columns which could not be damaged or stained, minimal alternative attachment-point options, narrow space with near-constant foot traffic, and more) so I was restricted only to the sides of the skywalk. The stainless steel poles were my only attachment options, but their wide diameters made precision placement of hooks or wires another challenge.

However, the forced-perspective of the hallway also offered opportunities, as well as the interplay with sunlight through the windows. I ultimately landed on manipulating the natural imaginary boundary lines created by the pillars along the hallway. The entire bridge has a boxed feeling with perpendicular horizontal and vertical lines throughout, with the exception of the slight upward curve in the floor. The entrance to the bridge from both sides also forces people through a small rectangular double doorway. This solidified the experience from both directions and stood out as the most clear element in the space to manipulate.

I worked through a number of concepts but with the timeframe and other restrictions I chose to go with a broad stroke, pulling the imaginary center line of the hallway outwards. For colors I chose a multicolor fluorescent and a chaotic weave pattern, aiming to work with the forced perspective of the hallway to make the multicolor yarn blend into one color while the unpredictable lines blend into flat planes in people’s perceptions. My hope was to make the space feel like a completely different experience for people who may walk through it many dozen times per week. You know, freshen the place up a bit.

Frames in the Studio

Due to security restrictions I was ultimately not able to get photos of all three frames in their final locations at the different P&G locations around Cincinnati.