I have a peculiar hobby: I take pictures of rusty fire hydrants and turn them into planets.

Thanks to the overwhelming amount of positive feedback that my artwork has recently received on the internet, I decided to produce posters and calendars featuring my homemade planetary art. For the first time I'll be distributing my artwork as rewards for your generous donations, as well as offering you an opportunity to have your very own planet! I am raising money to be able to purchase a stock of the printed items, so that unit costs go way down.

As Seen On Wired!

The Story

On the afternoon of February 21, 2013, I uploaded an image to Reddit.com ("The Front Page of the Internet"). The image was a before-and-after picture of my transformative planetary artwork, juxtaposing the bulb-like top of an old fire hydrant with the artwork that I made from it. To my utter surprise and excitement, within an hour or so it had risen to the very top of the Front Page of the site where it remained for the duration of the day, accumulating some 1.5 million views and roughly 50,000 up-votes (or 'likes'). While reading through all of the comments I couldn't help but think, "What's next? Where do I go from here?". Well, I've been featured in several blogs and news outlets like Petapixel and Wired. The best way for me to thank you for the support is to just continue doing what I love and share it with the world in the form of some rad calendars and posters.

The image that started it all!

As Seen On PetaPixel!

As Seen On Signal Tower!

The Process

Finding rusty fire hydrants that are suitable for terraforming is not a walk in the park (unless it is). Over the coming weeks and months I will continue to scour the city of San Francisco for its elusive rusty fire hydrants, and transform them into worlds, continuing to develop my style and sharing the whole process. I want to produce a large quantity of them so that I can distribute them everywhere later this year, which means I'll have to print a whole lot all at once.

The 2014 calendar will include only the best of the best rusty fire hydrant images, steering your year into a realm of curiosity and wonderment. You'll look forward to the end of the month, every month (except December). As well as designing a calendar, I will produce a variety of posters, and also offer an insanely awesome t-shirt. (No text or nothin, just pure graphical goodness.)

Some planets will have vibrant forests and dusty valleys, others frozen over with glaciers and bacteria-rich oceans, some atmospheric with thick clouds, others void of life altogether. Some may even have civilizations illuminating the dark side of the planet.

The Rewards

I have physical and digital rewards to offer, from posters to the printed calendar to T-Shirts of all different sizes, and limited edition prints. The content and diversity of the planets to come are affected profoundly by your feedback, and the more funding I recieve, the more options you will have to choose from for your posters, and possibly even for T-Shirts. I will inflate the scope of the calendar's design based on the success of the campaign. All supporters get to have their name and rank on the website (this is optional).

I'm offering an opportunity for higher-level backers to have a planet (or even a solar system) produced just for you, based on your specifications! A poster of two planets colliding? A planet with a moon that also has its own moon? A gas planet with a rocky core and icy rings? BRING IT ON! Check out all that I have to offer in the rewards section to the right. Even if you are donating just a dollar, you are helping me share my passion with the world.

The Dream

I would love to sell my work at conventions, book stores, art shows and more. I hope to produce a hard-bound book showcasing my entire collection, which also delves into the methodology and philosophy behind the imagery that I create. I hope that this niche, peculiar artform leads to bigger and better things, and that I will be able to continue to share my message that art is transformation: it is the process of turning something mundane into something beautiful and captivating.

The most intriguing aspect of this hobby of mine is how the features of the "planets" form: the decay and the rust are a product of the natural conditions of Earth -- just as the features and geography of our home planet are guided by the natural conditions of the solar system. Perhaps more exciting is the notion that there may be planets out there in the universe that look almost identical to the ones I've rendered. Being able to illuminate this concept in a unique way is a truly unreal experience, and I can't wait to continue to share it

I hope that that raw sense of discovery I feel when I come upon a rusty fire hydrant in the city is similar to the feeling you get when you discovered these worlds for the first time.

Thanks for looking!