The family who plays together, stays together. The Waraksa brothers are living proof. Whether it’s animation and fashion or music and sculpture, this local sibling duo seems to thrive on all things creative.

Growing up, Nick and Jordan Waraksa were exposed to art and the creative process the same way most children are exposed to video games and Saturday morning cartoons. Their mother, Susanne, has been a jewelry designer for more than 35 years, and the boys grew up listening to their grandfather, Leonard, play the piano and accordion. Now, years later, the boys have become men, each contributing to the Milwaukee art scene in their own unique way.

The elder Waraksa, Nick, is the dictionary definition of an over-achiever. After graduating in 2004 from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design with a degree in communication design, Nick decided to follow it up with another graduation in 2005, this time from UW-Milwaukee with a degree in music composition and motion graphics. But graduation would only be the beginning.

In addition to the freelance design work he does regularly for numerous advertising agencies, he’s found the time to start up his own clothing line, teach classes at MIAD and perform in KSA, a band the brothers started a few years ago. Quite an impressive resume for a guy who’s only 26.

So, when does he sleep? "That’s a good question," he admits. "I’m just now making a conscious effort to get some sleep because it tends to catch up with you after a while."

When he’s not trying to find time to rest, he’s busy creating visually stunning pieces that can be described as a marriage between organic life and urban decay. His motion-based animations turn static fonts into swirling curls; manmade structures into tree roots and branches. If you’ve been to a Milwaukee Bucks game in the last year, chances are you’ve seen his work. He designed and directed the game-opening intro that plays on the Jumbotron at the beginning of every game.

Nick’s newest project is Wounded Line, a clothing company he started in 2006. Wounded Line is the translation of Nick’s work from computer monitor to fabric, but it has allowed him to do more than just turn his work into wearable art: It’s a project he works on with his mother. While Nick handles the clothing end of the brand, his mother is busy creating her own wearable works of art with Wounded Line Jewelry. In a very short amount of time, this mother-son duo has already made a national mark.

"I just got a call today, actually, for Wounded Line to be part of a Tyson Beckford shoot in New York," he says. "A local guy who works for a magazine in New York came to our launch show, so he helped us get it."

Nick may have a three-year advantage on his younger brother, Jordan, 23, but that doesn’t mean his brother’s list of achievements is any less impressive.

Jordan also tackled both MIAD and UW-Milwaukee simultaneously, earning himself degrees in both sculpture and music. His sculpture work has garnered national acclaim with a showing at last year’s Sculpture Objects & Functional Arts Fair in Chicago, and he recently received a 2008 NICHE Award for his piece "Sound Sculpture I." His musical accomplishments are equally impressive. Over the past two years he’s toured Italy performing violin in an Opera Academy, and he wrote and performed the soundtrack for the short film "Weeds," which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

What stands out most in everything Jordan creates is how well it all works together. His 6-foot-tall wooden sculptures are twisted and contorted cones that look like Dr. Seuss-inspired versions of a phonograph’s speaker. But the sculptures are just as functional as they are beautiful.

"Different pitches can be produced by blowing into the smallest end," Jordan explains. During his senior thesis show at MIAD the pieces became a delivery system for his other art: music. "During the show the pieces were standing on top of a pedestal that hid a small speaker, and the sound that emanated from the sculpture was that of myself playing a selection of recorded original vignettes I wrote specifically for the show," he says.

His next project is a commission to create sculptural art for the Milwaukee Brewing Co. "I discovered a treasure trove of salvaged pieces and parts from the original Pabst Brewery," he says, "which I toured when the project began. From this stock pile I selected rusty gears, flanges, piping and sight glasses, all of which I will weave into my sculpture." He’s also creating alongside actual brewers, as his studio is located in the company’s 2nd Street Brewery.

Even though the Waraksa brothers create independently of each other, the siblings manage to also find time to create together with their band KSA. With Nick on piano and Jordan on violin, the result is a vintage sound from days of old. Appropriately, it’s music you’d expect to hear coming out of one of Jordan’s sculptures. They describe their sound as "gypsy noir" or "porch-lit carousel."

"Our music has an influence of our classical music education," Jordan says. "It is an acoustic-based sound with folk-like lyrics."

Nick and Jordan work together to create each song’s structure and lyrics, which begs the question: After creating so much work independently, is it easy or hard to create something with your brother?

"We’ve discovered the world in a similar way," Jordan explains, "so we share a common ground in one of the most basic parts of being creative: knowing what we like and dislike."

Nick agrees. "We grew up doing the same thing, but we never really pushed each other. Instead, we push ourselves simultaneously in the same way. We feed off each other." M.