Joe Hemes is an architect turned sculptor, whose work transforms coarse industrial materials into elegant structures. He studied architecture at Montana State University, craft at the Haystack School in his home state of Maine, where he has been widely exhibited. He has won awards as an architect, as a photographer, and as a sculptor as well as an Individual Fellowship Grant from the Maine Arts Commission. Hemes is inspired by the forms of the microscopic diatom, by the proportions of skyscrapers and mosques, and by Japanese sensibilities.