The Craft with May Globus

Mark George possesses an original perspective, someone with the ability to look at the world and spaces in it with a nonconformist eye. The longtime designer & furniture maker recently founded August Studios, an East Vancouver building for artists, designers, and makers to work, learn, and collaborate.

Born in Miami, his family moved to Seattle when he was 10-years-old. His bank consultant father was battling leukemia, and the city had a cancer research hospital with the necessary treatment. His father’s search for new bone marrow became a national story on Oprah, Geraldo, and Sixty Minutes—at the time only blood relative bone marrow transplants were allowed, and he had been adopted. With the help of a voice analyst consultant for the FBI, an extended search and a subsequent lost court case, eventually a donor from Sweden was found a decade later. For cancer recovery, the family relocated to Vermont, where they lived a simple and idyllic life in the middle of the woods.

Mark went to school in New York for fine arts, sculpting, and painting. He then spent some time in Philadelphia, before winding up in Vancouver for his Masters in Architecture at UBC. During his career, he has focused on modern, architectural design and worked on projects with a number of architects, artists, and institutions: Mcleod Bovell Modern Houses, the Patkaus, Scott & Scott, Tony Robbins, Ken Lum, Elspeth Pratt, Vito Acconci, Rebecca Bayer, Vancouver Art Gallery, and Burnaby Art Gallery.

In this conversation, we examine being a witness to his father’s cancer journey growing up and recently learning about his father’s autism; how he learned to deconstruct systems and how it’s influenced his work; how he constantly see shapes in everything and relates them to places on his body; his experience-based approach to designing spaces and objects; winning first-place in association with Haeccity Studio Architecture for Urbanarium’s 2018 ‘The Missing Middle’ competition; his woodworking classes based on the late Enzo Mari’s open furniture design concept; what fascinates him about how his daughter operates in the world; and much more.

Show Notes

Mark George possesses an original perspective, someone with the ability to look at the world and spaces in it with a nonconformist eye. The longtime designer & furniture maker recently founded August Studios, an East Vancouver building for artists, designers, and makers to work, learn, and collaborate.

Born in Miami, his family moved to Seattle when he was 10-years-old. His bank consultant father was battling leukemia, and the city had a cancer research hospital with the necessary treatment. His father’s search for new bone marrow became a national story on Oprah, Geraldo, and Sixty Minutes—at the time only blood relative bone marrow transplants were allowed, and he had been adopted. With the help of a voice analyst consultant for the FBI, an extended search and a subsequent lost court case, eventually a donor from Sweden was found a decade later. For cancer recovery, the family relocated to Vermont, where they lived a simple and idyllic life in the middle of the woods.   

Mark went to school in New York for fine arts, sculpting, and painting. He then spent some time in Philadelphia, before winding up in Vancouver for his Masters in Architecture at UBC. During his career, he has focused on modern, architectural design and worked on projects with a number of architects, artists, and institutions: Mcleod Bovell Modern Houses, the Patkaus, Scott & Scott, Tony Robbins, Ken Lum, Elspeth Pratt, Vito Acconci, Rebecca Bayer, Vancouver Art Gallery, and Burnaby Art Gallery.

In this conversation, we examine being a witness to his father’s cancer journey growing up and recently learning about his father’s autism; how he learned to deconstruct systems and how it’s influenced his work; how he constantly see shapes in everything and relates them to places on his body; his experience-based approach to designing spaces and objects; winning first-place in association with Haeccity Studio Architecture for Urbanarium’s 2018 ‘The Missing Middle’ competition; his woodworking classes based on the late Enzo Mari’s open furniture design concept; what fascinates him about how his daughter operates in the world; and much more.

What is The Craft with May Globus?

The Craft is an audio-visual collection of intimate conversations with creatives, entrepreneurs, and pioneers across disciplines. Each episode weaves through their personal backstory, creative process, and way of living—an exploration of the humanity that connects us all.

Alongside the conversations, the show’s visual storytelling—through editorial-style photography—offers another way in. Like a modern-day magazine editorial, each image is a quiet window into the spirit of the guest and the world they’re shaping.