My Artwork and creations

  These simple acrylic etchings done with my laser were quick and easy to do, and I was hoping to be able to sell them to superhero lovers. I did sell a few pieces, but ultimately, this didn’t really go anywhere. This is because I realized that listing these online might be a copyright issue, as the logos and symbols are all trade-marked.

  Inspired by the movie “The Avengers”, this simple piece consists of a set of action figures, glued to a lamp I got at Goodwill, and then spray-painted gold. I got the idea from some internet user who came up with it. 

  This book, inspired by the iconic “Twilight Zone” episode “To Serve Man” (Season 3, episode 24, 1962), in which aliens who visit earth carry a book with this foreign inscription. Later in the show, it’s revealed that it says “To Serve Man”. Initially thought to mean that the aliens want to be our servants, it is later discovered it means to serve a dish….it’s a cook book. To make this, I lasered the design onto vinyl to create a stencil, and then spray-painted the letters. 

  My friend Kim gave me this Violin shortly after we met in 2019. It was busted pretty badly, and she liked my Steampunk instruments and gave it to me to “do my thing”, and this is the result. As opposed to my guitars, this is a non-electric instrument, so I had to be tamer with body modifications, so this is a relatively simple transformation, consisting mostly of a paint job and the cogs glued on the bottom-right of the body. 

  Shortly after moving to the US, I met a guy named Lenny Luzzi, a graphics designer by day and accordion player by night. Knowing how much Lenny loved accordions (he had about 10 of them, last time I checked), and after a series of steampunked guitars, I decided to expand by making this instrument, which I gave Lenny. This was quite a complicated paint job, as I had to take a very foreign instrument apart to paint it without damaging the internal parts, and I also had to make sure the various pieces I stuck in there wouldn’t cause an air leak, as the accordion is a wind instrument. Good looking piece, I think.

  I’ve always adored the Harpsicord, a middle-ages keyboard instrument that preceded the Piano. While musically, it was inferior, I always loved their inverted design of black keys and white minor keys, and so when I found this (really good) digital piano at Goodwill one day, I decided it was my chance. It was quite tricky to mask the keys intermittently, so I could spray-paint them cleanly, but I’m pretty happy with the results! (bottom-left corner shows the original)

  After making 3 steampunk guitars, I had the urge to make ONE last one….and I felt it would be a bit off the mark to make one based on a gaming guitar. “Rock Band” type instruments are a dime-a-dozen at thrift stores, so I was able to find one quickly. The rest was a pretty-standard set of steps – paint, cogwheels and the curvy-shape that I laser cut. Finished-off the neck with a silver-tone paint job and some “rust” effects with black plasti-dip, as I usually do

  Starting in Feb 2019, after seeing a video of this technique, I “discovered” acrylic pouring, where one pours several colors of acrylic paint into a cup, and then pours it onto something, creating intricate swirls. This led to me creating numerous pieces (some are featured later), and culminating in this last one, which I did after gaining some experience and developing confidence that I could do it without ruining the guitar or wasting a lot of paint (again, this was shortly after my divorce, and even $20 worth of paint was a hit). I actually messed this up a bit, when I accidentally touched the guitar after a few days and realized the paint wasn’t 100% dry (you can see the bluish spot on the top, just above the bridge). Still, this is one of my most striking pieces ever, I feel, and it hung prominently at my club Spoonz and was revered by many guests.

 While I already made 2 steampunk guitars by now, I’ve dreamt of making a double-neck one, after seeing musician Mark Kroos creating amazing pieces on his. I was able to find a double-neck kit on eBay for $170 (which was still quite a bit, as I was fairly broke following my divorce a few months before). The kit was more complex than I thought, and so it sat in the corner for many months while I was trying to figure it out. I finally finished the decorations in June 2019, although I still wasn’t able to figure out the electronics, and so they are not actually connected, even though they are all there.

Nothing too unusual about this one. I always thought these type of steel plates were cool. I was only able to find one that’s 12”x12” (home depot), so I couldn’t use it on a full sized guitar (it would leave most of the body bare), so found this kid’s guitar (“First Act”). Then, with tin cutters, I was able to make the shape. Some background gold and silver paint to give it a bit of extra rustic look.  

  I’ve always been a fan of gold, and while I don’t disagree that it’s tacky, I have indulged that fancy occasionally, trying to keep balance in my household to not make the whole place feel like a Donald Trump-esque place. This guitar was one of those indulgences. Simple spray-painted body and neck, with some classic decorations in silver. 

  It took me a while to become a trekkie, and I’ve only got into it at age 14, watching Star Trek – The Next Generation (1987). However, even though I was never a big fan of the original series (which ended 6 years before I was born), I do appreciate it and enjoyed watching it in later years. This guitar is my tribute to it. It’s based off of two simple fender clones. I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on this hobby, so I had to wait until I found a 2 nd guitar of the same design to make a matching set of nacelles. 

  Another laser creation based on a busted electric guitar I found at Goodwill. I ripped out the neck and electronics, and cut a minimal “body” out of a piece of black 10mm-thick acrylic to hold the pickups and bridge. I then took an old and busted Atari game I bought on eBay for $10 and put this together. Despite the weird shape, the guitar parts do work and the guitar plays!

A few weeks after completing the 1st one, I’ve already discovered the laser cutter at the Microsoft “Maker’s garage”, and used it to create the various cogwheels used in this guitar. Cogwheels are an important part of Steampunk’s visual style, so having the ability to make wheels was a significant boost to my work. 

  This is my 1 st major piece, which launched my “Steampunk” phase. After seeing someone at Steamcon (a steampunk convention) that year, I aspired to make one for myself. I found a busted up guitar at Goodwill for about $30, and over the next 3 weeks, put together the parts and pieces to create this.

This one is boring. I know. Who cares about dates...get to the fun photos! I will...hang on tight. But I felt the book should start with this, to give a bit of order to things.   1986 : For my bar-mitzvah, I receive a Nikon FG-20 SLR camera as a gift from Phyllis and Martin Albert, my relatives from Boston. The camera is too complex for me, so it remains unused for a while. 1990 : I start using my SLR to take photos. Struggling with costs of film, I learn to develop film on my own, and use my high-school’s lab. I create filters and effects using things like colored cellophane, Vaseline, cardboard and other techniques. 1994 : My photo work is noticed by the senior officers at my army base, and I’m asked to be the “official” photographer of the base. I take part in many base events as one, and enjoy some of the luxuries typically reserved for officers. 1998: I create my first website PCPhobia, which receives national attention and leads to start working as a journalist for Maa

 Welcome to my arts and crafts collection. For most of my life, I thought of myself as an engineer. A guy who builds and fixes computers and other technology items, rather than someone creative. While I was married to a very artistic person for many years, I always thought of her as the creative one, and not myself. Even when I became a writer in 1998, after starting my website PCPhobia, I still didn’t think of myself as creative, even though I created a significant amount of content, which (when I became a national-level journalist around 2000) was consumed by hundreds of thousands of people. My first creative streak came about age 17, when I started getting deeper into photography. My high school had an art department, and even though I wasn’t in it (I was a Chemistry major), I was well known and liked by school staff, and so I was allowed free access to their studio, where I practiced developing film. I practiced various techniques for photo effects, some with just my camera, othe