with Street-Works Studio
Ornamental Portal
9’ x 7’
wood and gold leaf
Condominium lobby, North Bethesda, MD
In mathematics, a Rose, or Rhodonea Curve, is a sinusoid plotted in polar coordinates.
Fabrication and Assembly Credits: Ion Moraru, David Forstrom (Labco Welding, Inc)
Copyright Bract-Ambitus 2018
commissioned by Street Works Studio
LED lit chandelier
Aluminum, stainless steel
12’h x 8’d.
Canopy Hotel Lobby, North Bethesda, MD
The pages are set in rows with direction, orientation and rhythm. Text, maps, illustrations, photographs are carefully placed in light-modulating compositions.
The folding breaks the concentric rows in movement, a dance of floating pages and wind-blown leaves - literally feuilles – and creates wing-like surfaces and curled petal shapes.
While on display as prints, the pages create an environment, a place to explore and enjoy the content revealed in folds and patterns.
Commissioned by Street Works Studio
Wall Installations.
5’ x 10' and ’5’ x 4’ panels
Plywood and metal
Canopy Hotel Lobby, North Bethesda, MD
Recall the old hotel room keys quietly hung on hooks behind the reception counter, the numbered keys that open the door for shelter and for adventure or for a night’s rest. Imagine saving some of them to connect with travelers across the generations.
They Key Orbs (by Moerkey) were assembled by hand, silver-soldered in molds sculpted in a single-car garage in Australia, polished and lacquered, and carefully cradled in wooden boxes. The orbs traveled a long distance to Bethesda, like most of those passing under them on the way to their rooms upstairs.
The key holes act symbolically and visually as portals, the promise of mysteries unveiled. Accent inserts and hand rubbed metallic edges create a play of colorful fragments that appear to have escaped from the landscape of the moss wall, fluttering across the panels to dissipate into the world at large.
The Key Panels are conceived in reflection to the globes. They are integrated in the architecture as elevator enclosures, visualizing the movement between floors and referencing the intricate, cast iron structures historically used around these great conveyors.
Fabrication Credits: Ion I. Moraru, Andrew Cryan. David Forstrom (Labco Welding, Inc)
Copyright Bract-Ambitus 2018
Recent projects have led us to study the possibilities of creating sculptural work with light and paper.
The ‘Les Feuilles’ series - named after the french word which translates to both “pages” and “leaves” - is an exploration in scale, fold, rhythm, and form.
SISTER-RESIST
Logo and Stamp Design
930 Rose Avenue Branding Graphics
Book Cover 2
Book Cover 1
Logo design
Competition Entry - Garden Chair
Phelps Gate Poster Display Cases - Bronze (with BloomerStudio)
The poster cases flank Phelps Gate, the entrance into the old campus, and share the visual language of the cabinets at Woolsey Hall and University Theater (for BloomerStudio)
Woolsey Hall Poster Display Cases - Bronze and Steel (with BloomerStudio)
Placed at the base of each column, the five cabinets surround the rotonda and greet the site from all directions.
Hand-crafted cherry table
8300 WI Ave Art Lights, 1:12 models (for BloomerStudio)
Rising Unity Sculpture
Rising Unity Sculpture
Rising Unity Sculpture
Rising Unity Sculpture
Festoon study for flagpole base, clay
Palmette maquette for flagpole base, clay
Flagpole base, cast bronze - for BloomerStudio
Panel, fiberglass
Gate clasps, cast bronze - for BloomerStudio
Rosette clasps for balcony railing, cast aluminum - for BloomerStudio
Study models for exterior art tile wall, clay
Mock-up study for art tile wall, clay
with Guru Dev Khalsa and Bloomerstudio - concept by Kent Bloomer and Guru Dev khalsa
Panel variations and layout, system of ornament, 3-D development and prototyping by I. Barac
Water jet and cast aluminum
Courtyard and balcony railings, Guru Nanak Dwara, Phoenix, AZ
with BloomerStudio
30’ x 12’ x 12’
Aluminum, hand hammered leaves
Slover Public Library, Norfolk, VA, Architect: Newman Architects, Kent Bloomer - Principal, Ioana Barac - Project Designer
Conceived as integral part of the comprehensive system of ornament for the library, The Terrace Grove is an exuberant iteration of the forms used in the Forum ceiling and facade.
Structural aluminum is hand formed and machined in an arboreal composition of choreographed branches and tendrils.
1:2 mock-up