I finally had the motivation to get professional photos of some of my recent small pieces. Happily, I happen to know a guy who is both a brilliant photographer and interested in my work - enough to want to work a trade. As I was importing the fruits of his labors into my computer, I realized that each and every image was beautiful. Thanks, Jafe.

Take a look:

There are more in the "Small" section.

Tags: Process, Quality

I'm currently reading "Mind Wide Open" by Steven Johnson (his most known work is "Everything Bad is Good for You"). It's subtitled "Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life". In it he cites the work of researcher Joseph LeDoux, who has found that the experience of danger actually follows two distinct pathways in the brain - one conscious and rational, the other unconscious and intuitive. The second pathway, dubbed the "Low Road", ends at the amygdala, which basically specializes in emotional response. This bifurcation is why you will find yourself suddenly frozen in place when you glimpse a very snake-like branch on the trail, before your cortex is able to analyze the much more high-resolution signal it receives and conclude that it's not a threat. It's very much a matter of bandwidth - the amygdala gets a very low-res version very quickly, while the cortex signal is slower but richer in content. Other studies show that our ability to apprehend the emotional states of others is handled much better by this brain sub-system as well - your immediate, intuitive reaction to someone's facial expression is much more accurate than the one settled on through your cortical deliberations. First thought, best thought.

This made me wonder if a person's predilection toward more sketchy, painterly artworks isn't somehow tied to this neurological phenomenon - we tend to think of it as a "gut reaction", but could it be that this is a function of the way our brains work? It's interesting to note that as we grow more knowledgeable about art, we tend to value works that embody a more spontaneous, less fussy visual style. Is this because we learn to trust our amygdala and depend less on our cerebral cortex - and it's greater complexity? To me, the whole purpose of art is to convey something universal about an individual, internal emotional state - what better part of the brain to utilize than the one that specializes in emotion?

Tags: Creativity, Process

"It was a fun experience, as I haven't done any smaller works like this, where client interaction is taking place just like on the bigger projects."

Is this the most poorly constructed sentence EVAR, or what? Sheesh. Sure, I could go back and just edit the post, but then all my fans would think I'm this perfect, god-like being who never fucks up - and we all know how boring that would be, don't we?

Tags: Doh!

I did a small commission for a woman who was heading up her own real estate group - "Blue Moon". It was a fun experience, as I haven't done any smaller works like this, where client interaction is taking place just like on the bigger projects. We played around with different designs until finding something we both liked. This is what we arrived at.

Click on the image to see more of the chronology of the design.

What does this have to do with leftovers? The Blue Moon piece included a crescent of silicon bronze, which my laser guys don't keep in stock - I had to buy a full 2 ft. by 10 ft. piece. Needless to say, I had a lot of leftover material. (A-Ha!) I've always really loved the volumes and shapes of horses, so I thought I'd just quickly model something up - a horse head - to use up that bronze sheet. It was mostly just a lark, I didn't really intend to come up with anything too special - but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

There is an area of discoloration that occurs adjacent to each weld, called the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ), that can include gorgeous reds, blues, and purples - I've always loved that stuff. On this piece, I decided to just let it be, to not cave in and grind the welds back or do anything else to obscure them. Bronze is 95% copper, which is highly reactive to environmental acids and chemicals, so you have to seal it somehow in order to keep it from changing colors. Clear powder coat to the rescue.

Tags: Bronze, Stainless Steel, Process, Creativity

I've been goofing around with some new themes in RapidWeaver. I really dig this one - it's by Elixir Graphics and called "Origami". Seems kinda apropos, with all the metal folding and stuff. Oh, yeah - to the three people on the planet who actually visit my site, I'm sorry for the lack of new posts. Hopefully I'll have the time to work up something interesting. At some point. Maybe.

Tags: Doh!

Just received word that the Loveland Visual Arts Commission chose me for the Water & Power project. So very, very psyched. We are scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss a few design changes. Speaking of which, here are some pics of the models:


There are more over on my Flickr account, including renderings of the site.

Tags: Public Art, Commission, Proposal

Been working on maquettes for a project I'm a finalist for. It's been in the upper 90s - perfect weather for bundling up in thick leather and melting metal. Time to separate the men from the... other... men... who are smart enough to come in from the heat.

Tags: Process, Proposal, Public Art

After struggling for days - literally - trying to get a computer site model ready for a proposal, I finally figured out what needed to happen. It sucks when the best course of action is either to half-ass the job or spend money on YET ANOTHER piece of software. So far my experience has been that it's much more difficult to do professional work with hobbyists tools (so, yeah, I bought the damn software). Now I'm gearing up for my first exposure to Rapid Prototyping. I think I'm just about ready to send files out for quotes. I rewarded myself with a bike ride and some goofing off with my camera.

This sculpture has been at this stage for a few months now. The guys at the laser cutting shop must have a had a tough time getting the cut parts out of the stock, as the metal shows quite a few dings and gouges from their efforts. I should have rejected the parts, but they were stacked together so I couldn't really inspect them properly. It turns out that my unfolding on this was erroneous, and the fabrication was a huge pain in the ass - you wouldn't think it would be big deal, but each of the faces you see is actually supposed to have a diagonal bend across each one. Just 1/64 of an inch out of planarity, and the design almost didn't work. Lots of clamping, prying and cursing to get the edges to line up even near appropriately. I need to decide if I want to cover up those dings and gouges by grinding them out and powder coating it an opaque color, or if I want the process to be transparent to the viewer by just using a clear coat. Hmmmmmm.



More pics here.

Tags: Creativity, Process

"In my sculptures I transform powerful images into sculptures that interweave personal narrative, with social issues. Made from newspaper and tape, which I refer to as “social materials,” everybody can equally access these materials; I cover each sculpture in expressive and abstract graphite markings. The contrast between the methodical binding of materials and the abruptness of the mark making suggests physicality as sensual and destructive. The intimacy of the figures’ interaction is agitated by the presence of the viewer. I am interested in how the viewer relates to the sculptures as either participant or voyeur. With this juxtaposition, I seek to reveal the corporeal and mental boundaries of desire."

Tags: Creativity

Ok, RealMac Software has released an update to Rapidweaver. Looks like they got everything fixed.

Tags: Doh!

Please excuse the ugly, barely-legible nav bar up there - the software I use to do this website, Rapidweaver, has been updated to version 3.6, which isn't quite ready for prime time. Hopefully they'll get things sorted shortly.

Tags: Doh!

Finally got around to building Ren and me a new table. It's steel with a gray hammertone powder coat and cherry plywood top. The legs are removable. Turned out pretty nice. Toot. (That's the sound of me tooting my own horn.)

Tags: Furniture

Haven't had the time or the motivation to blog of late. BooHoo. The semi-latest news is that we were able to repair the damage on the marble ball and get the whole project wrapped up in time for some punk-ass kids to use the walls for ramps for their bikes. Damaged them pretty badly. Once again, though, the City of Paramount stepped up and repaired them - doing a fantastic job in the process.

Tags: Memorial, Commission, Public Art

Well, made it home from an installation gone awry in Paramount, California. We arrived on site early on Tuesday morning to find the "Upholding" sculpture broken. Our truck driver had done everything he could to try to minimize the damage after he spotted it happening, but things still got pretty messed up. I probably shouldn't get into details at this point due to legal and insurance issues, but suffice it to say that mistakes were made. Everyone at the City of Paramount involved in this project was on the ball and very professional in helping us get through this, and I'd like to say a big "Thank you" to them now. They managed to rent a TiG welder and I was able to reposition and re-weld the plates back into place. The marble ball was bruised and chipped, but should be repairable (we are already scheduled to fly back out in March to finish things up). In addition, a couple of the concrete wall sections shifted on the trailer, resulting in a big chip right near one of the plaques. The pre-cast company did send along a patch kit, so we were able to get most of the damage repaired - but more attention is needed. John and I put in a long, hard, frustrating 12 hour day, but we were able to get all 7 wall pieces and the sculpture itself placed. Not too bad, I guess. (Click on the image below for more pics.)

Tags: Memorial, Public Art, Commission, Doh!

I can't help it... sometimes I just gotta goof around. So I thought maybe it might be fun to share some of the silly stuff I make. Check out adoodadaday. (Edit: I took down that blog. Just wasn't able to update it properly. Sorry about that.)

Tags: Doh!

This series of pictures shows how a mold is pulled from a clay original in order to begin the casting process via lost wax. I painted a LOT of rubber and tossed THOUSANDS of pounds of plaster back then. Dan Ostermiller was a good guy to work for - he knew how to have fun and didn't take himself too seriously back then. His career took off like crazy at about this time, and he had some problems adjusting, like any guy in his thirties who suddenly had people clamoring to buy his work would. More complete descriptions can be found here.

Tags: Process

Hmmm. I found this image, with a date on the back, which contradicts my guess for the date on the previous post's pic. This was taken in March of 1989 - I was working for Dan Ostermiller at that time, doing point-ups (enlarging small sculptures into biguns) and welding them together. The location is at the old Loveland Sculpture Works building. That's Nancy, Dan, Tim Cherry, me, and Kevin Fitchner, along with a few thousand pounds of cast bronze critters. Kevin was the first welding teacher I had - he was also a dairy farmer, and would get up every day at 4 am, milk his cows, come to the shop for a day of welding and grinding, then return home to milk a second time. He averaged about 5 hours of sleep a night. Needless to say, he quit working for Dan shortly after this picture was taken, and I took up the job of managing Dan's production.

The Tropism piece from the previous post was done when I worked for Kent Ullberg, which was after working for Dan. So 1990 is more accurate for a date on that pic.

Tags: Bronze

I did this piece for a private party in uhh... 1989, I think. So I was 23 years old. The title of the piece is "Tropism" - it reminded me of a seedling just orienting itself to the sun after breaking out of the seed. The material is gray alabaster. I remember picking up the raw stone - it weighed about 1200 pounds, and the finished carving was 750. There was a lot of unsound material in the blank, and that influenced the design. Like most of my carved stuff, I had no predetermined concept in mind at the start, I just started wailing away with the chisel, letting the design evolve as I worked. I kind of miss that approach, but my wrists still bitch about the abuse they suffered to this day.

Tags: Stone

Oh, shit. I suck at sticking to stuff. Except making sculptures. For some reason, I just keep doing it. This year marks my 20th year of it, in fact. I made my first casting (that word almost makes me barf - it's like a shot of cheap tequila) in 1987, and went to work for Dan "The Man" Ostermiller in 1988. I've dicked around with tons of different modes of expression, but the one constant has always been sculptural form. I think I might dig out some old photos and scan them, do a sort of egomaniac's retrospective right here. Stay tuned.

Oh, and the attached pic is a fabrication shot of the "Upholding" piece for Paramount, CA. Scheduled to be installed on the 20th of this month.

Tags: Commission, Process, Stainless Steel