Larsen found early success as a landscape painter that included iconic barn images. By the time he was 22, he exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He became dissatisfied with painting and abandoned his practice after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. He began cutting and arranging scraps of metal, built around a substructure of birch laminate material. With a painter's eye, Larsen searches for material to work with at salvage yards, then further processes materials in his studio. Larsen states, "I am indeed looking for a palette— different types of greens, blues, yellows. They have to have a certain quality, not too raw, not too clean."