Joel Hotchkiss has been designing and creating contemporary kinetic art and hanging mobiles since 1976. His art mobiles have been sold in numerous museum stores including the Guggenheim Museum, the SFMOMA and the Art Institute in Chicago.

My father was an artist and very creative and my mother ran the businesses our family operated when I was young. In college I studied design and film at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY graduating in 1972. While working and living in Boston as an Art Director, I began making and filling my apartment with mobiles. I relocated to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1978 to “make-real” a newfound dream of becoming a Mobile Artist.

The early years of the 1980's in the Bay Area were very "heady" and exciting. I drove daily from Oakland to a Studio called Kinetic Objects in San Rafael where I studied and learned the art of Mobile Making. It’s there I taught myself to weld and work with various metals, plastics and fabric applications. I would often return down across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco and deliver mobiles to the Museum of Modern Art Store and a Gallery called Don Conard Mobiles in Ghirardelli Square before returning home to Oakland.

Many of Joel's kinetic designs have been displayed in movies and TV productions including the Tri-Lumen mobile which appeared in The Witches of Eastwick, and the Ascent and Traverse art mobiles which were seen in Baby Boom.

Joel Hotchkiss considers his kinetic art mobiles as "sculpture in air". They include the popular bottom viewing "Lumen" art mobile suitable for all ages from small children to office art. You can view them under the "Classic Lumens" Menu heading and the larger Tri-Lumen mobiles are located under the "Tri-Lumen" category.

There are a variety of metal mobiles incorporating natural metals including aluminum, copper, brass and steel and a colorful selection of painted metal art mobiles. Also please look through our selection of playful "Whimsical Mobiles".

While the majority of Joel's kinetic art mobiles are enjoyed as indoor mobiles, he also offers several mobiles both free hanging and on stands designed for hanging outdoors from eaves or utilized as garden art mobiles or placed on patios.

Introduction: Hotchkiss Mobiles was founded by Joel Hotchkiss in Oakland, CA in 1981. He met his wife, Sandra who joined in running the business in Oakland in 1983.

During this 30 year period Joel has designed a wide range of mobile designs sold in Galleries and Museum Stores nationwide including San Francisco MOMA and the Guggenheim Museum. The Mobile Studio, now located in West Stockbridge, MA also creates larger Mobiles for Residential and Commercial spaces.

Creating functional, contemporary mobile designs for over 30 years has been a passionate and challenging journey. I still love this soothing sculptural art form that produces "poetry in air". Each year I introduce new ideas to my work... mobiles in which I push my creative impulses to pursue innovative approaches resulting in new styles, balancing techniques, composition and uses of materials.

Hotchkiss Mobiles offers a range of hanging art mobiles all designed and created in West Stockbridge, MA by mobile artist Joel Hotchkiss.©1978-2014