Public Art
Pre-School Wisdom: Water is Blue
11/08/08 15:34 Filed in: Sculpture
“Water” is out of the oven and now has a nice blue
finish.
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"Water" being sandblasted.
06/08/08 10:47 Filed in: Sculpture
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.
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
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.
Got It!
13/07/07 16:46 Filed in: Sculpture
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.
There are more over on my Flickr account, including renderings of the site.
So Hot... Must... finish.
06/07/07 10:50 Filed in: Sculpture
Update on the Veterans Memorial
25/05/07 09:30 Filed in: Sculpture
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.
The Best Laid Plans...
25/02/07 09:39 Filed in: Sculpture
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.)
Cubetowers in the Median
20/11/06 09:38 Filed in: Sculpture
Working on some graphics illustrating the placement of my Cubetower sculptures into street medians for the City of Long Beach, California. I used generic streetscape buildings from Google's 3d Warehouse to populate a mocked-up city. Sketch-Up also lets me set the location up as Long Beach in order to accurately study shadows and sunlighting for that particular locale. I used a more unrefined line style to suggest a first-draft concept that hopefully won't influence the client too much in regard to the actual execution of the design.
Synergy Mandala
07/11/06 17:44 Filed in: Sculpture
