Nate Mahoney Studio

Tag: Proposal

  • AI Prototyping.

    AI Prototyping.

    Thanks to Diane and Kate for leading a fun AI playground workshop.

    I’m using AI tools to create new products and services.

    For my art practice:

    1. AI Coffee: Scan a QR code sticker to order your coffee

    For my small business, The Urbanist.

    1. The Urbanist: Text Advice for how to use public transportation, food recommendations, and for city tips.
    2. The Urbanist. Safe Streets: Text message supportive advice for confidently navigating the city.

    Tool or Tools utilized: Figma Make, Twillio, Terminal, Python, Flask, Claude, Chat GPT. 

    What worked well: Figma make went very well for generating a prototype. Setting up an account and verifying phone numbers on Twillio was easy. 

    What didn’t: Getting python running on terminal was tricky, I’m new to coding so learning a lot asking Chat GPT how to get it to work 

    Next steps: Prototyping and coding this so it actually works with a phone number ported to Twillio. 

    Links: 

  • Howdy Cowboy Painting series.

    Howdy Cowboy Painting series.

    For Walking, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 11” x 14” x 1”

    Howdy Cowboy

    A painting series, ongoing

    This series looks at the cowboy boot as both a symbol and an object of desire. I paint the boots instead of the figure: footwear standing in for the western myth rather than a portrait of the person who wore them.

    The cowboy holds a specific place in American imagery. It carries rugged individualism, conquest, and a narrow idea of what a hero looks like, and it has long helped hold up patriarchal norms. I’m drawn to that imagery and wary of it in equal measure. That’s the conflict at the center of this work: an attraction that doesn’t sit easy next to a refusal to keep feeding the patriarchal symbolism the figure carries. Painting the boot instead of the body is how I hold both of those things at once, without pretending one wins out.

    I’m not trying to take the myth apart. I’m trying to sit inside its contradictions and ask questions about my desire when I know better and yet I still want.

    I’m honored to exhibit this work at Fogtown Hoedown to place it inside a queer country western dance tradition that has always known costume can be a form of critique and reinvention.

  • Forest bathing: Queer portraits in nature: proposal

    Forest bathing: Queer portraits in nature: proposal


    What the series is about.

    This series documents people exploring and being rejuvenated by forest bathing in nature. The collaboration with queer subjects across the spectrum of LGBTQIA+ includes video interviews and still photographs to share that sense of calm with our community.

    There is an open call to be photographed for this ongoing project. Link to participate.

    Land Acknowledgment. We acknowledge that this project takes place on the ancestral lands of Native Peoples. We acknowledge this not only in thanks to the Indigenous communities who have held a relationship with this land and stewarded it for generations, but also in recognition of the historical challenges. Additionally, we make this acknowledgement as a point of reflection for us all as we address these wrongs in an effort to heal our relationship with Native Peoples.

    Sketchbook drawings to envision photographing queer forest bathing portraits.
  • Aquatic clock proposal

    Aquatic clock proposal

    A public art proposal to connect public swimming pools in different neighborhoods across the Bay Area. Inspired by taking WSI training at Oakland public pools and learning about a proposal to create a floating long course pool on the San Francisco water front. This initial idea is to update the defunct pool clock at Fremont pool in Oakland with a functional clock with a second hand to aide in timing workouts, a similar clock would be installed at other public pools in the Bay Area that would send and receive useful and poetic data from each location.

  • AI Coffee

    AI Coffee

    A performance art project to chat about AI expectations with a human artist. QR code stickers placed in public start the text message based conversation.

    I was interviewed about AI and Art by PE Pinkman for his podcast.

    Scan the QR code to start a conversational AI coffee order.

    The stickers are perfect for your laptop! Reach out if you’d like to order one.