Portfolio of Michael Parks

Artist brain. Engineer heart. Craftsman hands. Hacker soul.

Michael Parks, a tradigital craftsman, fuses the raw curiosity of an inventor with the precision of an engineer and the intuition of an artist. Trained in both the fine arts and the applied sciences, his work spans digital fabrication, traditional craft, embedded electronics, conceptual design, and abstract visual art. Whether carving leather by hand or orchestrating machine-made forms with code, Parks builds artifacts that bridge disciplines—and eras.

Working under the banners of Green Shoe Garage and Green Shoe Studio, his bottega functions as a hybrid space: part workshop, part laboratory, part conceptual playground. He wears many hats as a tradigital craftsman: woodworker, metalsmith, CNC machinist (mills, lasers, and 3D printers), bitwright (software programmer), and circuitsmith (electronic hardware). His projects blend CNC machining, electronics, sculpture, and storytelling—always rooted in a deep respect for process and an eagerness to explore the edge cases of utility and beauty, the play between form and function, abstract and precision, chaotic and algorithmic, humanist and technologist.

Parks treats making as a philosophical practice. His objects are not just artifacts—they are provocations, prototypes, and playful critiques of systems and structures. Precision and poetry coexist. Failure is part of the formula; along with playful tinkering, questioning, and embracing the beautifully unresolved. A marriage of exploration, experimentation and invention. His creations aren’t just things; they’re tools for thought, alive with contradictions and wonder.