As an engineer, I often think about CAD as a tool for the engineering and design of technological products. But, every once in a while, I’m reminded that CAD can can be used in ways its makers never anticipated.

Shane McKenna is an engineer, designer, craftsman, and artist. I recently talked to Shane about how he uses CAD/CAM in his work, and he, as an aside, shared some of his art. Here’s what he said:

I always turn my tools to artistic endeavors sooner or later. It occurred to me that I could create abstract art by modeling shapes and then playing with the lighting, rendering and camera angles. I have not had a much time to play with these ideas lately, but would like to get them into a gallery at some point. I am open to doing commissioned pieces until I have created a large enough body of work to approach some galleries. These are all done in Solidworks.

If you like Shane’s work, you can contact him by email, at twoartistic@gmail.com.

Tomorrow, I’ll be following up, and posting an article about how Shane uses CAD, CAM, and 3D scanning in his (more conventional) work.