Art that maps to you.
While we’ve been sourcing imagery for custom shadow boxes and perfecting the dream product, the three-dimensional window box, another idea quietly took off: hey acrylic! skylines. And like many good ideas, this one came from a family member. Early on, my son-in-law looked at my logo and the whimsical creatures we created in the same stylized design and asked, “what about cities?” That question inspired our strongest collection.

The creatures still have their place: playful, adorable. And if you ever saw the neon rooster that used to hang in the café at the Tate Modern in London, well… let’s just say our rooster struts circles around it. Seriously, the whole menagerie would look incredible in neon. If hey acrylic! ever needed a side hustle, we’d have a ready lineup of glowing characters just waiting to light up a wall. We’re talking to you, Yellowpop!

But the skylines became something bigger. Simplified, stylized, and adorned with clever little details only locals would recognize, these designs capture the spirit of a city with a few clean lines. Austin’s famous bats. Paris’s romantic heart. My hometown Kansas City’s playful shuttlecock.

In fact, that’s me in the photo about five years ago, standing in front of Academy Bank at the Crossroads in downtown Kansas City. Just behind the glass windows is our Kansas City skyline printed on wood panels in white and green. You can imagine how fun it was to get the call for that project!

Our skylines turn cities into collectibles and acrylic into conversation. They’re modern without being cold, striking without being fussy, and just clever enough to be interesting. They live not just on walls, but on coffee tables and bookshelves: décor you actually use and enjoy, whether you’re serving drinks on a tray or setting down coasters for your guests. They aren’t just images; they’re hometown pride, travel memories, the places you’ll always return to made tangible.

So, while the three-dimensional window box remains our passion project, and the shadow boxes our steady bread and butter, the skylines have become hey acrylic’s everyday magic. Every flagship deserves a collection, and for us, it’s these: iconic silhouettes turned into décor that’s as unexpected as it is personal.

The must-have collectible for your home.
Last month you all learned about my dream product, a three-dimensional window box. I’m working on it!  But dreams take time to scale, and along the way I discovered something that became hey acrylic’s foundation: the signature acrylic shadow box.

Here’s the thing: the framed art industry is drowning in copycats. You know the drill—scroll through Society6, then hop over to Minted or Art.com, and a hundred clicks later everything starts to look the same. Exhausting, right? The reality is most “mid-tier” home décor is mass-produced, flat, and forgettable.

That’s where we come in. For those of you who want high-style, dimensional art that feels like a gallery piece but is still attainable, we bridge the gap between disposable trends and heirloom treasures.

Why it matters: you aren’t looking to fill a blank wall with basic décor. You’re someone with discretionary income and a sharp eye for detail. Your stress points are less about finding something to hang and more about finding the right something, one that delivers aesthetic interest, elevates social perception, and gets it right the first time.

That’s where our shadow boxes truly shine. Inherently unique, ours are made by hand in Austin, Texas, featuring laser cut front and side panels and a Belgian linen backer, available in either flax or white. It’s a simple treatment, but the effect is exceptional: dimensional, crisp, elevated.

But the real fun is how our luxe shadow boxes make everything inside look extraordinary. There’s a kind of magic about them. They don’t just frame art; they transform it. Honestly, the craftsmanship is so strong, it elevates anything. You could frame a grocery receipt and pass it off as conceptual art.

As for the competition: you know the one, with the bougie storefront in Presidio Heights. They have to fund that space! Their limited-edition textiles are gorgeous, but the price tags are sky-high, and their shadow boxes carry the look of mass production: uniform edges, extruded joints, none of the hand-finished detail you’ll find in ours.

We do things differently. Every shadow box is hand-cut and hand-assembled. Yes, we offer one-of-a-kind textiles in shadow boxes at competitive pricing, but we go further. Our carefully curated collection of art prints is available only in shadow boxes, bringing a new level of quality and originality to something the industry has been phoning in for years. We don’t have a brick-and-mortar or bloated overhead, so you’re not covering our rent or our excess inventory. What you’re paying for is what matters: our design, our curation, and the craftsmanship that goes into every piece. Are we running a business? Absolutely. But we’d rather earn a living by delivering extraordinary art objects than by inflating prices to cover the cost of a fancy zip code, even though producing from Austin is pretty great!

And the bigger picture? hey acrylic! isn’t here to add sameness or extravagance to the décor market. We exist to provide limited-edition, artist-inspired acrylic décor to design lovers and collectors who crave distinctive, functional art for their homes. We’re here for those of you who want to invest in pieces that feel personal, intentional, and enduring, without overpaying for mass-market shortcuts disguised as luxury.

With hey acrylic!, you’re not just buying décor. You’re collecting bespoke art. Pieces designed to stand out, spark conversation, and hold their own as art you’ll love living with.

Yep. It's all about the three-dimensional window box.
I’ve lived my adult life in Austin, Texas, but my beloved hometown is Kansas City. The house I grew up in was decidedly chaotic, but it was also interesting. My eccentric father loved to boast that instead of buying a baby carriage for three children under the age of four, he invested in a bronze sculpture—a choice that said everything about his priorities. He was, however impractical, a lifelong art enthusiast.

I went to elementary school in a middle-class district, where my Colonial Revival home felt like king of the hill. It wasn’t until middle school, in the opposite direction, that I met kids from sumptuous villas or sprawling estates. Their homes carried the stamp of designer influence—Chippendale dining sets, plush white couches, wallpaper that matched the drapes, and everything coordinated down to the powder room towels. Walking into those homes was like stepping into a magazine spread, a world away from my own unique hodgepodge.

3600 Wyncote Lane was a patchwork of hand-me-downs from my grandparents and modern purchases by my parents—an Edward Wormley (Knoll) couch, a George Nakashima dining table, Michael Thonet dining chairs, Mies van der Rohe and Alvar Aalto side chairs, and my dad’s go-to—a Charles Eames leather lounge chair. Nothing matched!

At our butcher block kitchen table sat several three-legged Nakashima chairs my dad had cut down from bar stools. One day my grand dame of a grandmother took a seat and went tumbling backwards. Truth was, those chairs toppled more often than they stood steady. I can still hear the clatter they made!

I was no mid-century modernist. My natural inclination for my own first home was to select bespoke paint colors that matched the Laura Ashley prints on my couch and club chairs. It was sweet, but as I matured, my tastes shifted. 

I’m more of a minimalist now—a nod to my origins I suppose—and yes, I’ve purchased my share of modernist pieces, including an elegant Aalto lounge chair upholstered in a burnt copper Donghia fabric (now worn thin) and a modular Christopher Deam credenza paneled in a mix of wood and steel (still pristine). My son has the chair and will eventually inherit the cabinet.

The art at Wyncote Lane seemed eclectic to the point of dissonance. There was the Germaine Richier Hydra sculpture, a Man Ray self-portrait, a Jean DuBuffet wax crayon on paper, a Kurt Schwitters collage of oil, shells, and cardboard, a hideous James Ensor Study for Masks and Parade (that scared me to death!) and, of course, the beloved Bentons—Thomas Hart Benton to be clear, a celebrated regional artist whose home in Valentine I visited dozens of times with my father.

The collection also included fine photography by Diane Arbus, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, and Edward Curtis—later sold to Hallmark when my parents divorced—alongside an abundance of Native American art and religious icons gathered over countless trips to Santa Fe, New Mexico, an artist mecca at the time.

And then there was this perfect little lucite art box that I adored (still do—that hasn’t changed!): three panels, layered inside a frame, creating a three-dimensional image that utterly captivated me. Back then, it was just negatives pressed between panes, a simple clothesline, of all things, with different garments strung across each frame. 

Of all the eccentric objects in my unruly childhood home, that little art box is what grabbed me. It’s what inspired hey acrylic! eight years ago when I first realized the potential of acrylic. And today? We can print right on the acrylic. Instant art, instant joy. It’s my passion project, the piece that made me believe acrylic could be more than décor—it could be art you live with.

But it’s not instant, of course. In fact, it’s not easy to fabricate. I have yet to find a manufacturer for this product—and here’s why; these three-dimensional boxes demand innovation and precision: visionary artists willing to take a chance on an untested product, talented graphic designers able to splice static images into layers, a competent pre-press team to refine the files, high-quality printing, laser cutting, and finally, hand assembly in sequential order.

That window box remains my dream product—the one I am still figuring out how to bring to life. I’ve now got factory-ready specs to share with the right fabricator. Even better, I’m working with the amazing @karinbos, whose art is picture perfect in these little gems. Stay tuned—we’ll be shining a spotlight on her very soon.

As for the boxes themselves—well, the journey continues. I’m determined to bring them to market, because honestly? There’s a need for limited-edition, artist-inspired acrylic décor for design lovers and collectors seeking distinctive, functional art for their homes. I’ve been watching this space for years and haven’t seen anything like them. They’re the kind of art I want in my own home—and I know I’m not the only one.

I’m exploring manufacturers, including one in Asia, but producing overseas comes with its own hurdles: freight, tariffs, customs, warehousing, potential quality issues, all of it. And that also means moving away from the on-demand model that has kept hey acrylic! lean, into the world of upfront investment and inventory.

So, for now my focus is on building the foundation—growing steadily with my core products—shadowboxes, trays and coasters—creating income I can count on. It’s daunting, but exciting too—and I’ll keep you posted every step of the way. 

And hey, if you happen to know a great stateside manufacturer who can handle acrylic, let’s talk—because building hey acrylic! is a team effort.

From a spark of acrylic to a world of wonder.
Pivoting from a successful run in tech, I jumped into what I thought would be a fun detour about fifteen years ago—landing in a preeminent art reproduction company with big ambitions. Artist recruiting, giclée printing, laser cutting, lucite framing—it was like being handed the keys to the kingdom for a wannabe art maven, aspiring designer, and perpetual tinkerer. Creative, inventive, and just the right amount of obsessive.

Fast forward through a few twists (an investment backer who fired the leadership team, a tough start-up stint with no income, a long stretch back in corporate life), and I couldn’t shake the itch. During those years in the art industry, I’d fallen hard—for acrylic.

Why acrylic? Because it’s magic. Clear and modern, but also bold and playful. I loved the one–inch flame-polished frames, the layered shadow boxes with linen backers, the luminous neon mirror boxes. But at the time I conceived hey acrylic!, I was most inspired by a piece from my childhood: a vintage acrylic window box from the 1970s: three panels, layered inside a frame, creating a three-dimensional image that felt alive. Back then, it was negatives sandwiched between panes. Today? We can print right on the acrylic. 

That was the spark. I wanted people like me—people without giant art budgets—to collect unique, meaningful objects for their homes. Art you don’t just hang, but live with. 

After eight years of dormancy—because I was baffled by how to market my fledgling business, was competing in a saturated framed-art market, and was busy working full time in the corporate world—I’m finally reinvesting. This time feels different: shadow boxes and acrylic décor offer a fresh, unique value proposition. I’ve learned a lot, grown in countless ways, and I’m ready to move forward with renewed clarity and focus.

Admittedly, I’m chasing a dream—not only with my time, but with my funds. I’m investing in website optimization, social media campaigns, product development, brand photography, email marketing, and even packaging and fulfillment. Each decision feels like a step toward building not just products, but a business that lasts. And it’s exciting but also a little scary.

But here’s the truth: hey acrylic! isn’t just about acrylic. For me, it’s about that same magic I felt as a kid peering into that window box—the sense that art isn’t distant or untouchable, but something you can hold. That’s the feeling I want to share.

Because this isn’t just my story—it’s yours, too. hey acrylic! is about giving you access to art that feels alive, objects that light up a wall, a table, a whole room, that inspire conversation, memories, and joy every time you walk past. It’s proof that even the smallest idea can become something you hold in your hands: sleek acrylic—etched, printed, layered—transformed into a collectible that invites play, pride, and connection.

And this is only the beginning. From new shadow box collections to playful neon and unexpected design ideas, I’m pursuing a passion—and inviting you to come along.