At the time, Black was a father to twin daughters who were six years old. For quite some period, he had been harboring an idea to bring a meaningful family mantra to life within their living space. The family’s guiding phrase—"Be brave, be curious, be kind"—was something he had long planned to transform into a giant, prominent banner for their home. Suddenly, locked down and working remotely with time carved out from normal commuting and travel schedules, Black finally had the uninterrupted hours required to bring the vision to fruition.
To craft the banner, Black turned to specialized materials sourced from Oxford Pennant, a well-known manufacturer based in New York celebrated for its traditional wool felt products. The finished banner not only brought a much-needed sense of warmth, color, and cheer into their basement workspace and family area, but it also inadvertently bridged the gap between his personal creative experiment and his professional network. Impressed by the craftsmanship and visual appeal of the piece, Black decided to share the finished product with the team at Oxford Pennant, sparking an unexpected collaboration.
According to Black, the manufacturer absolutely loved the execution. Their enthusiasm was so strong that Oxford Pennant ultimately began producing a commercial pennant utilizing Black’s original design, while also rewarding the art director with a generous supply of felt material to fuel his future artistic endeavors.
This unexpected endorsement arrived just as Black was already conceptualizing his next major artistic challenge. He had been in the middle of sculpting a substantial, five-foot-long fish out of foam, but the ambitious sculpture was missing a critical component: it was in need of scales. Coincidentally, around the same time his banner gained traction, at-home cutting machine manufacturer Cricut also took note of Black’s work and stepped in to sponsor his ongoing artistic endeavors, providing the precise tools necessary to tackle complex cutting tasks.
With the raw materials and mechanical assistance secured, Black was left to draw upon every hands-on art lesson he had ever acquired throughout his life. From his earliest childhood memories of fingerpainting as a toddler all the way through his rigorous academic training as a double major in art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he applied decades of cumulative experience to an entirely new kind of blank slate. Reflecting on the process of bridging traditional fine art techniques with modern crafting technology, Black noted the experimental nature of the endeavor, explaining how he had to figure out from scratch what a felt fish should look like before diving in, playing with proportions and textures until he suddenly found his first fish completely covered in meticulously arranged felt scales.
Ever since completing that initial breakthrough piece, Black has been chasing new creative highs, continuously pushing the boundaries of his craft. His projects quickly evolved from basic felt-covered forms to increasingly complex and layered textures. He began experimenting with cladding his sculptural creations in intricate felt flowers instead of standard scales, and eventually transitioned from aquatic life forms into sculptural studies of birds.
Every single sculpture begins its life through elaborate preliminary sketches on paper. Once the conceptual phase is locked in, Black meticulously calculates the precise scale and structural requirements of the piece, framing out the interior armature using a combination of metal, wood, and foam to ensure durability and balance.
While the Cricut machine handles the repetitive and tedious work of cutting out the individual felt pieces according to precise digital templates, Black personally takes over the intricate assembly phase. He glues each individual piece into place by hand, subsequently enhancing the final sculptures with detailed applications of paint and various other mixed media materials. Remarkably, all of this intricate fabrication takes place entirely within the confines of a compact, 25-square-foot home office, crammed into the late-night hours after regular working shifts and throughout the weekends.
From the very beginning of this journey, Black has made a deliberate point to involve his twin daughters in the hands-on creation process. His primary goal in doing so is to demonstrate to them that it is entirely acceptable to try something new, experiment without a safety net, and inevitably experience failure along the way. That early exposure has clearly left an impression, as the daughters now maintain and cultivate their own independent art projects alongside their father.
Furthermore, Black has chosen to document the messy, unvarnished creative process of each individual piece publicly on Instagram. Rather than only sharing polished final photographs of successful installations, he makes a point to highlight his artistic mistakes, false starts, and the practical ways he problem-solved his way through them. Explaining the philosophy behind this transparent approach, Black noted that he wants to put the notion out into the digital world that we are all essentially beginners trying to figure things out as we go along, emphasizing that while a finished piece might look effortless and polished in the end, it invariably took a tremendous amount of trial and error to get there.
Over the past few years, Black’s distinctive sculptures have transcended the boundaries of his home office and his social media feeds. His work has been featured in formal art galleries, special public events, and, most prominently, displayed for a full year at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Having his artwork integrated into a high-traffic public space has been a source of immense enjoyment and surprise, particularly when he receives spontaneous text messages from friends or acquaintances sharing photos of family group chats discussing his airport installations.
Despite growing public recognition and interest from commercial entities, Black has actively resisted taking on commercial commissions that would dictate the specific parameters of what he makes or—even worse—demand that he endlessly copy his previous work. The thrill of the pursuit—constantly chasing new shapes, unexpected styles, and original design problems to solve—remains the primary driving force behind his artistic output.
That dedication to originality and physical craftsmanship is also directly influencing his professional environment at Meerkat. His latest completed project is a striking eagle sculpture featuring individual feathers meticulously crafted from polymer clay that Black hand-painted himself, a piece that now holds a place of honor inside the agency’s physical offices. At a time when the broader creative and marketing industries are grappling with the widespread integration, ethical concerns, and public suspicion surrounding artificial intelligence in creative work, Black deeply understands the distinct value of clients being able to visit an agency and physically see, touch, and appreciate a tangible piece of art crafted entirely by human hands in-house.
Ultimately, Black hopes that his rigorous side-hustle serves as a broader inspiration for the kind of relentless curiosity and hands-on dedication that drives truly great advertising and marketing work. As he reflects on the parallels between his personal sculptures and his professional leadership role, Black stresses that the industry must continually push forward, solve complex structural and creative problems, and maintain a sense of foundational curiosity when approaching any new challenge.
