About

I am an abstract expressionist fine artist based in Austin, Texas. I create large-scale works through experimental processes that merge industrial materials and photographic techniques.

I come from four generations of metal workers. From my great-great-grandfather’s foundry in Ireland to my grandfather, a metallurgist for the U.S. Navy. However, much of my early life was spent in a darkroom with my father, a career 35mm SLR photographer, where I learned how to burn, dodge, develop, and enlarge images from negatives.

This rare dual heritage gave rise to a distinct artistic vision:

I had an unreasonable urge to work with steel using photographic film processing logic. I didn’t realize I was putting together the pieces of my heritage.

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Crane lives in Clarksville, Old West Austin, with his wife and two children. He holds degrees in Sociology and Anthropology from Southern Methodist University, an MBA with a focus in Computer Science from the University of Texas, and a patent in Cryptographic Trust Systems.

I create large-scale abstract artworks that are forged through a unique process I developed involving industrial low-carbon steel and photographic transfer to acrylic glass. Each series is the result of meticulous experimentation, reflecting both my background in technical systems and my artistic lineage.

My current work focuses on two complementary series: Ferrophoto and Signal. These pieces are placed with both corporate and private collectors—often through commissions—and can be found in the collections of Charles Schwab, Deloitte, TD Ameritrade, Freshfields at One World Trade Center in NYC, and others.

The works are created on large glass panels and range from 4 to 30 feet in both circular and rectangular shapes.

I like the struggle, fight and uncertainty of doing work I have never seen done before. Most of the series I create take years of experimentation and failures. Some of these never make it out of my studio but with enough trial and coffee I am able to have a productive practice.

Many of my collectors are trying to tell a story of innovation, and these works help them do that. The series I create are hard won but I believe we are at our best when attempting to do what we are not certain can be done.

Having worked in both art, and as a cognitive architect, I’ve always been drawn to what hides beneath the surface.

Each piece begins in a gritty, hot, steel warehouse where I source industrial low-carbon steel. These are loud, sweaty, large places, filled with men of the same ilk. I’ll load the sheets and bring them back to my quiet and compact studio and start a transformative process that can last anywhere from months to years.

The steel is etched, oxidized, and manipulated before I photograph them and transfer the imagery to acrylic glass. There are a number of steps involved, Stripping, Burning, Layering, Washing, Sealing. These sound like neat boxes but within each step is a number of delicate progressions that are infuriatingly unpredictable.

“Steel is like an inebriated person. It acts like it wants to sleep, but if you wake it, you’d better have a plan to control it. It’s unwieldy, recalcitrant, and unpredictable.”

Ferrophoto is a body of work that captures the chaotic, organic beauty of steel as it undergoes transformation. These large-scale works are forged on industrial steel and transferred to acrylic glass, revealing imagery that feels simultaneously microscopic and galactic, organic and alien.

The works are full of intricate detail, flowing mysterious negative spaces.

The name “Ferrophoto” merges my dual inheritance:

• Ferro for the steel lineage of my ancestors, and

• Photo for the photographic tradition I inherited as a child.

This series is rooted in material science as much as it is in artistic vision. Both film and steel are crystal-based recording media:

• Photo film uses silver halide crystals to capture light.

• Steel contains ferrite crystals that record pressure, oxidation, and usage.

“From the beginning, I had an unreasonable urge to work with steel using photographic film processing logic. These two seemingly unrelated disciplines were one in me, and I was compelled to abide in a vision that took years to realize.”

Signal

Signal is the conceptual and aesthetic counterpart to Ferrophoto. Where Ferrophoto is chaotic and lush, Signal is refined and focused. If Ferrophoto is the storm, Signal is the eye- a moment of clarity pulled from complexity.

These works begin with microscopic fragments of Ferrophoto imagery, some less than 100 microns wide. I digitally enlarge and stretch these fragments to reveal hidden linework and subtle gradients, uncovering structure from noise. Each final piece is as much discovered as it is created.

“In data science, a signal is the meaningful pattern buried within overwhelming noise—like a cheetah crouched in tall grass, or the handful of markers that predict disease. It’s the quiet voice in a child urging them to bet on themselves.”

This body of work is deeply personal. As a former A.I. architect and data team leader,

Signal is difficult to find because we live in a world of constant overload. This series is about seeking and honoring that clarity—in steel, in ourselves, in others, and in our ideas. Each piece represents a mediation or single moment of stillness from which a signal arises.