About

Behind every work comes 3 things; nature, geometry and curiosity.

Ethan ‘EJ’ Merritt is a child of the American prairie, a student of mathematics, physics, and philosophy, is a well known traveler, and a practitioner of excellent architectural design. He is a graduate of Kansas State University, registered architect, and constant student to Nature. His work in architecture harmonizes with nature and optimizes the vernacular aspects of each place. Every building seems as if though it’s always been there as it’s made from local materials, by local builders and craftsmen.

As an artist Ethan utilizes his love of nature, his knowledge of the built environment, and his honed craft to create compelling pieces in an interdisciplinary fashion and aims to fuse the natural and the digital together through craft. He comes from a creative family hallmarked by rural traditions in Kansas. At a young age Ethan was taught various painting mediums such as; oils, watercolor, and acrylics, from his maternal grandmother. His mother is an avid quiltmaker as well.

Ethan’s unique and integrated practice of Art as Architecture and Architecture as Art, which allows him to think fast and slow allowing each to inform the other. The combined practice is at harmony with one another, allowing him to produce works as small as a sheet of paper, to large canvases, and to installations that you can exist within, and even a building that you live in. Outside of his practice Ethan is engaged in civic and volunteer roles with the local municipality, participator in community, fosters growth and connection with other makers, and is gifting to others through teaching and public speaking.

All around his curiosity motivates him to be a maker, a thinker, a doer, and avid outdoorsman. When he is not fostering community, he can be found in and amongst nature, probably summiting some peak or getting lost in the desert. He currently lives the Rocky Mountains of Colorado outside of Aspen. Formerly resided in Brooklyn, New York.

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