The ATM Mural

Located just inside the building's front door, the ATM Mural is the first visual element of your journey into the Ministry of Awe.

This mural used our full bag of tricks! Incorporating murals into enclosed spaces can be tricky, but with the right knowledge and experience, you can get phenomenal results like this.

This Art Deco design used a myriad of techniques, including projecting, stenciling, gridding, freehand painting, and mural cloth installation.

For the wall of appreciation on the left side of the image, I wanted to create the impression that you were looking into the wall, which I did by using plaster and the wall's natural cracks to emphasize depth. Then I used VR goggles to map my illustration to the wall and trace this intricate design for painting.

One of the most crucial and beautiful aspects of being a creator is developing your drive to grow and expand your views and abilities.

This project highlights this sentiment for me.

When I learned about creating a full-sized 6 x 18-foot carpet by hand, I took on the project with vigor. Using a tufting machine, I mapped, traced, and tufted the design into three 6 x 6-foot squares and used adhesive and rug-crafting tools to bind them into a full-sized carpet.

The carpet was made to fit perfectly within a designated part of the floor, set into the wood, and sealed to transition seamlessly between the wood floorboards and the carpet.

This project beautifully blends artistic storytelling and functional engineering to transform a 19th-century printing press into a work of art.

Starting as a commissioned series of illustrations in 2024 by the Ministry of Awe to illustrate the building's background story, the Ministry of Awe, or “MOA,” team created many pieces and characters that laid the groundwork for what the building presents, elevating the experience and adding depth. This installation depicts the building as a character itself, traversing periods of time that follow the evolution of currency; by interacting with the press, viewers can see this history through the images it creates.

This was my first large-scale project for the Ministry of Awe and an eye-opening experience in the connections between digital media applications.

The MOA Infinity Arch symbolizes interconnectedness and features imagery from various MOA murals to enhance understanding. This illuminating portal into the mind of MOA is encapsulated within a ruined archway in the bank's underbelly. Its design loosely follows a figure-eight loop that embodies the bank's infinite nature, within which emerge two main figures: the MOA bird, which symbolizes community, love, and freedom, and the Haast eagle, which represents surveillance, control, and greed. These figures are engaged in an ongoing cycle.

This installation incorporated many interdisciplinary skills. The framework construction was completed from scratch with a wood construction that intricately fits five panels of machine-cut MDF board, which I mapped and layered to create depth within the archway. After prepping and sealing the panels, the hand-painted design was applied and installed within the basement or “catacomb” setting of the Ministry of Awe.

Commissioned for a performance piece at the Ministry of Awe, I created a traditional illustration on a chalkboard in the conference room during our busiest hours.

The Conference Room exhibit at Philadelphia's Ministry of Awe is a unique storytelling installation by local artist Taj Rauch. The room operates under a surreal narrative premise: visitors are dropped into a corporate world where reincarnation and past lives are accepted. By listening to the telephones on the conference table, visitors can put clues together to gain a deeper understanding of the experience.

To create a direct connection between the objects and the audio/video element, I illustrated specific pieces that gave visitors different audio options—all in teal to tie them together. Other hints in the room help viewers recognize the importance of the teal objects.