Meme is finished.
05/07/08 10:25 Filed in: Sculpture
Jafe Parsons got some preliminary shots to me this weekend of the finished "Meme" sculpture. Really, really pleased with this one. I think it is my best work to date - if that statement actually means anything. I oftentimes feel that my latest effort is my best; it takes a bit of time and perspective to get a true sense of how a single work fits into an oeuvre. Yet this does feel like a less tentative, bolder statement of form that is derived intrinsically and exclusively from my current process - the computer as primary tool for sculptural expression.
Number Six.
18/05/08 09:39 Filed in: Sculpture
Back from Little Rock, Arkansas having installed my sixth major piece of public art. None of these installations comes off without a hitch, but it seemed like this one was actually easier than some of the others - perhaps indicating that John* and I are actually learning? Personally, I was able to relax a bit more, which in turn allowed me to communicate better with our crane operator and everyone helping us. The elderly crane owner was there (in addition to the operator) and his expertise made a huge impact - but he was very soft-spoken and had the thickest Arkansas accent I'd yet encountered. It took a conscious effort on my part to pause and really talk things over with him in order to comprehend what he was advising. I think I've finally gotten mature enough to shut off the ego and do what's needed to achieve the goal. About time. Also, the Little Rock Parks and Rec guys were there to help us out, and they REALLY did. The strongest lesson I came away with was that we collectively are much more capable and wise than any of us is singularly.
* - John Kinkade, the Executive Director of the National Sculptors' Guild and my dear friend of 16 years. (That's him on the far right above.)
More pictures here.
Candleholder.
18/04/08 08:31 Filed in: Sculpture
I've been working on some ideas for more utilitarian
designs - if you can call a candleholder useful. The
first image is the sheet metal shapes as modeled in
FormZ.
And here is the first prototype in 14 gauge stainless.
This is (kinda) what it looks like with a tea light candle inside. I made a little platform that sits inside that will hopefully make the thing a little safer - the top of the enclosure does get pretty hot, but one of the unique properties of stainless steel is it's low thermal conductivity compared to other metals. The top gets hot but the sides stay cool.
The whole point of this piece is the pattern generated by the flickering light traveling through the holes, but my low-light camera skills is be real goodz - I could show you the pretty black rectangle I made, but... yeah.
And here is the first prototype in 14 gauge stainless.
This is (kinda) what it looks like with a tea light candle inside. I made a little platform that sits inside that will hopefully make the thing a little safer - the top of the enclosure does get pretty hot, but one of the unique properties of stainless steel is it's low thermal conductivity compared to other metals. The top gets hot but the sides stay cool.
The whole point of this piece is the pattern generated by the flickering light traveling through the holes, but my low-light camera skills is be real goodz - I could show you the pretty black rectangle I made, but... yeah.
Environmental responsibility and the artist.
15/04/08 10:38 Filed in: Sculpture
This picture, of Antony Gormley's "Waste Man" burning - filling the air with the noxious smoke of tons of discarded wood - set me thinking. Uh oh.
I understand that part of the point of this piece was to call attention to the massive amounts of waste we in the developed world produce, and to highlight the ephemeral essence of all the "stuff" we strive so hard to acquire. Gormley is one of my favorite sculptors - but this kind of condescending spectacle has definitely lowered his esteem in my eyes. Why exacerbate the very problems you are hoping to solve?
This brings up a point that bugs me no end regarding my own choice of method and material: how to reconcile the obvious environmental crisis-in-progress and my part in it with my (and our culture's) need to create and express. Is Gormley's monstrous cloud of smoke any worse in the end than the unseen multiple such clouds emanating from the iron mine, the steel mill, the tractor-trailer delivering the raw material for MY sculptures? Finding a point of equilibrium that allows one to be in the world without accelerating it's destruction is probably the most profound and important question we all must ask ourselves as we venture into a new millennium.
What do you think?
Meme.
16/03/08 17:33 Filed in: Sculpture
This idea - or at least the seed of it - has been floating around inside my mind's eye for quite a while. I finally have the tools to make it a reality, which I find pretty damn exciting. It is meant as a symbolic treatment of Richard Dawkins' "meme" concept:
"A meme (pronounced /miːm/) consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a "culture" in a manner similar to the behavior of a virus. As a unit of cultural evolution, a meme in some ways resembles a gene." (From the Wikipedia article.)
It's that "propagate" bit that this piece plays on in the form of a concentric ripple - an idea moving from mind to mind like a wave, spreading out from it's origin and altering the energy state of other ideas within the culture. It also employs the imagery of a matrix or lattice to illustrate the memeplex being made up of individual, discrete consciousnesses experiencing a collective and individual transformation through the propagation. I think of this process when I analyze the slow but steady progress our species is making from one cultural paradigm to the next, as ideas like liberty, responsibility, and reason spread virally and replace those of dominance, exploitation, and superstition. As more minds begin to cohere, constructive interference amplifies these waves - and everything gets just a little bit better.
Gary Gygax : 1938-2008
04/03/08 17:55 Filed in: Rambling
I am in a state of stunned disbelief. A bit of news has
crept up on me from the vast buzzing of the interwebs.
This news is arcane and oddball, like so much of the info
soup out there, but it has seeped inside me and found
some long-forgotten place of joy and excitement - and
killed it. Gary Gygax, the mastermind behind Dungeons and
Dragons, has died. Geekboy enough for ya? Well, it gets
worse. I not only spent countless hours playing D&D -
I did it by myself. I was both Dungeon Master and
Players. I designed vast worlds and complicated
labyrinths, drawing up countless maps on graph paper and
populating them with creatures both good and evil. I then
rolled up character after character to explore these
lands and live these stories - those games are still some
of the strongest and most engaging memories I have from
my youth. But it wasn't all just play. Profound lessons
can be learned when you play god and mortal both.
Characters I had nurtured for months could be slain by
one bad roll, and I was the one with the power to change
that outcome. But there in the Dungeon Master's Guide,
Gary Gygax had written more than just the instructions
for how to play the game - there was a tone to the
underlying scheme that encouraged the rational analysis
of ethics. I feel that D&D, like all great fiction -
especially fantasy and science fiction - is a metaphor, a
sign pointing the way to truths that are beyond the
storyline. So much important learning and interaction is
scoffed at by the mainstream because it is couched in the
"uncool". So simple a thing for a man to do as to invent
a game - but that game can hold the key to a deeper
understanding of life itself. A belated, unheard, and
ultimately useless:
Thank You, Gary.
Thank You, Gary.
Pas de Deux (Hello, Captain Cliche)
02/03/08 17:48 Filed in: Sculpture
I've finally had some time to break away from the Water
& Power project. What do I do with the time? Design
more sculptures, of course. OCD, anyone? I need to update
my How? section to reflect the new tools I've been using
- I've moved away from SketchUp and into fromZ for
modeling. FormZ is a much more powerful tool, but it's
burdened with a commensurate bump in complexity. I still
spend more time wondering what the hell is going on
rather than feeling confident in the necessary procedure
to do what I need. This confusion has actually been a
subtle prod to more creativity - playing without
understanding can bring you back to the "Beginner's Mind"
that breeds newness and breaks habits.
I just couldn't shake the impression of one form aiding the other to float overhead - like two ballet dancers in a pas de deux. This was rendered in Maxwell - I'm a rank amateur, so am excited about the potential quality renders looming on the horizon.
I just couldn't shake the impression of one form aiding the other to float overhead - like two ballet dancers in a pas de deux. This was rendered in Maxwell - I'm a rank amateur, so am excited about the potential quality renders looming on the horizon.
First Post for February. On the 29th.
29/02/08 10:21 Filed in: Sculpture
More progress.
25/01/08 13:38 Filed in: Sculpture
Making good progress now. The base portion has an extra
layer of steel sheet attached to it - to set off the main
sculptural form visually, and to allow for easy
replacement in the event of damage. I drilled all the
holes in the 3d model so their locations will be built
right in to the cut sheet metal, plus it makes for easier
documentation for the fabricators. (You can't really make
out the holes in this image, but there are 20 holes in
the face we're looking at here. Each penetrates through
the outer gray layer, the yellow layer, and into the
structural steel.)
Getting there...
22/01/08 13:17 Filed in: Sculpture
Current Mood: Wack.
16/01/08 17:13 Filed in: Rambling
I am slowly, inexorably being driven insane. How can
something as simple as a truncated, oblong pyramid be so
damn hard to model? Oh, sure, it could be the .001
tolerance I'm dealing with or the fact that everything is
-just- a few degrees off the cartesian planes - or even
the fact that I'm just too goddamn picky - but how many
days are acceptably wasted in the interest of just
offsetting one virtual 12 gauge sheet the thickness of
another?
Control Freak, Let Go!
08/01/08 06:28 Filed in: Sculpture
Making art is a very personal process that oftentimes
borders on mental masturbation. Maybe that's why I like
it so much >grin<.
Creativity can be seen as a dialog you are having with yourself, with the dialectic centering around finding balance between your own skills and the qualia of the medium your dealing with. For me, there is a fine line between craftsmanship and fussiness - perfection is an idea, not a reality. If your work is exclusively about dotting i.'s and crossing t.'s, expressing nothing more than "look how good I am", then it's appeal to an audience that is not you becomes pretty limited. Striding the razor's edge between craft and expression can be seen as the fundamental struggle of artistic endeavor. I have learned to trust my eyes and my hands to produce that which I see in my mind's eye - but I've also payed a price physically while developing that trust. Both wrists and my right shoulder are permanently damaged from pushing just a little harder to get that piece done. Growing older and becoming more involved in large Public art projects have forced me to outsource the fabrication of the bigger sculptures, with a commensurate loss of control. I'm still learning how to make this new process work.
The above pictured piece, "Together", was fabricated by Master Metal Works here in Fort Collins. They've done a good job - but not as good as I would have done. That's the crux of the issue: surrendering just enough control to get the work done without sacrificing the overall quality of the sculpture.
Creativity can be seen as a dialog you are having with yourself, with the dialectic centering around finding balance between your own skills and the qualia of the medium your dealing with. For me, there is a fine line between craftsmanship and fussiness - perfection is an idea, not a reality. If your work is exclusively about dotting i.'s and crossing t.'s, expressing nothing more than "look how good I am", then it's appeal to an audience that is not you becomes pretty limited. Striding the razor's edge between craft and expression can be seen as the fundamental struggle of artistic endeavor. I have learned to trust my eyes and my hands to produce that which I see in my mind's eye - but I've also payed a price physically while developing that trust. Both wrists and my right shoulder are permanently damaged from pushing just a little harder to get that piece done. Growing older and becoming more involved in large Public art projects have forced me to outsource the fabrication of the bigger sculptures, with a commensurate loss of control. I'm still learning how to make this new process work.
The above pictured piece, "Together", was fabricated by Master Metal Works here in Fort Collins. They've done a good job - but not as good as I would have done. That's the crux of the issue: surrendering just enough control to get the work done without sacrificing the overall quality of the sculpture.