Static Motion: Entering the Chrysler Museum’s Permanent Collection

Static Motion: Entering the Chrysler Museum’s Permanent Collection

There are moments in an artist’s life that make you stop and take in how far the work has traveled.

Static Motion entering the permanent collection of the Chrysler Museum of Art is one of those moments.

The piece began in the studio as an exploration of balance, color, architecture, and movement. Now it has a permanent home within one of the country’s most respected collections of glass.

That means more than simply placing an object in a museum.

It means the work becomes part of a larger history.

Building a Modern Funk Language

Static Motion was created in 2023 as part of the visual language I call Modern Funk.

The work brings together stacked geometric forms, saturated color, asymmetry, and the feeling of movement held in place. It pulls from the boldness of Memphis design, the energy of streetwear, the imagination of childhood play, and my own relationship with glass.

I’m interested in creating forms that feel familiar and unexpected at the same time—objects that carry precision without losing their personality.

Static Motion holds that tension.

It feels balanced, but never completely still.

A Permanent Home

Having the work acquired by the Chrysler Museum of Art is deeply meaningful because of the museum’s relationship with glass—both as a material and as a living field of experimentation.

A permanent collection carries work beyond a single exhibition. It gives future audiences, artists, students, and researchers an opportunity to encounter the object and the ideas behind it.

For me, it also represents visibility.

It places my story—from discovering glass in Tulsa to building a creative practice in Los Angeles—inside an institution committed to preserving the history and future of the medium.

View Static Motion in the Chrysler Museum of Art’s permanent collection.

Returning as a Visiting Artist

In November 2024, I returned to the Chrysler Museum as part of its Visiting Artist Series at the Perry Glass Studio.

The experience created another kind of connection to the institution. I led demonstrations, worked with university classes, shared my process, and participated in the museum’s Glass After Dark program.

There is something powerful about having a finished piece preserved in the museum while also being invited to show the living process behind the work.

One side holds the history.

The other keeps the fire moving forward.

From Tulsa to the Museum

I didn’t enter glass through a traditional path.

I discovered the material in Tulsa and followed that curiosity into a class, an apprenticeship, teaching, and eventually a life built around making.

Every stage came with its own uncertainty. I had to learn the material, develop my voice, build opportunities, and keep moving even when I couldn’t see exactly where the road was leading.

That is part of what this acquisition represents.

It is proof that the path does not have to be conventional for the work to become part of the canon.

Static Motion, Reimagined

The story of Static Motion has continued beyond the gallery.

The Chrysler Museum Shop transformed the sculpture into an exclusive squeaky dog toy—an unexpected and playful extension of the original work.

I love the idea of a museum object taking on another life: accessible, functional, humorous, and able to reach people outside the traditional gallery experience.

Seeing the sculpture move from the studio into a permanent collection was already meaningful. Watching that same form become an everyday design object brings the story full circle.

Explore the Cedric Mitchell collection at the Chrysler Museum Shop.

What This Moment Means

This milestone isn’t the end of the story.

It is a marker along the way—a reminder that objects can carry our ideas further than we may ever see from inside the studio.

Static Motion now belongs to the Chrysler Museum of Art’s permanent collection, but it also belongs to the larger conversation I’m continuing to build through glass, furniture, lighting, design, and culture.

The work is still moving.