I started GOOD ART in 1990 in Los Angeles, California after thinking I could do a better job at making the stuff I wanted. My first pieces were for holes in my body and my first showroom was me sitting shirtless at a card table on Venice Beach. My first big sale was $550 to NaNa on the 3rd Street Promenade (look 'em up if you don’t know). I was young and brought up on those good old American virtues of honesty, integrity and a hard days work… so I took that first check to my boss and gave notice. Making art was always going to be better than making lunch. 

 

Since then my purpose has been to put aesthetics into the world, make things better, cooler, funner (yep, not a word but it works here). To create good effects via the best of handcrafted luxury goods, fit for everyday use; That was something I could get behind for a lifetime. I’ve discarded the pretense of fancy things in exchange for the free-spirited functionality of tough & clever ones. For more than 25 years my drive in this direction has remained steadfast. 

 

I’ve got some polarizing views on life and livingness, but those keep what I do simple. I’m in it to create an effect, to make the things that make others happy (or at least to get some rise out of them). The necessity of a thousand dollar lighter is an absurd question, but the pure joy of its luxury is an experience to relish. The degree to which an object can communicate or evoke a state of mind is a mark of its magnitude. Art is communication, and art has the ability to affect how you feel. Just as a work of art can uplift the spirit, so too can an everyday object bring joy well beyond its function. And if it does, it may well be art even if it looks like a key chain. I think it’s a noble purpose creating goods wrought for beauty, pleasure and the purpose of uplifting the spirit.

 

I’ve always been of the mind that only the best will do, and I tend to look at most things in terms of how to make them better. And then use those things to their fullest. Everything looks better with the scars of adventure. What we’ve done is distilled the arrogance and exclusivity of the clubhouse down to the grit of a good old-fashioned fistfight. No good ever came from a motorcycle you didn’t ride fast, or a Range Rover with 22” wheels. Our ethos is to make things that work, look good and feel great. The minutia of weight, shape and function are the difference between right & wrong, good & crap. I believe the good God is in the details and that’s what will move you or not. Cost-no-object hearty construction, clever mechanisms and the tenacity to do things well are the hallmarks of everything to leave my foundry and workshop.