For a Rainy Day

Sometimes the holidays give me the blues. That combined with officially handing in my retirement letter and semi-dwelling on dad's nursing home situation, sent me to the barn.



I had been pondering a piece based on some work I saw on a visit to a studio on the Walpole Open Studio Tour. The essence was a fabric wrapped bundle(not sure that I am satisfied with it - don't like the crook in the elbow and it is not hanging just right), reminiscent of the Peruvian mummies but hanging like from a spider's thread. I tried a first effort at the image with modifications on the idea using a bone slice, some wire spider web, background bolder painting inside the box and the bundle containing an arm with a hand extending. My idea was about storing necessities for a rainy day. The larger idea that I may want to extend this to is a wall of similar storage boxes, all black and dark, like our self-storage units.

60 to Life

I continue to struggle with having to place my dad in a nursing home and more so with his ever-increasing dementia. Painting seems to be an avenue to help me with my attempts to make make sense of it all. As I said, attempts!


Within each of us, there exists a personal cell ... perhaps, a personal hell. Cell or hell, it is there that we retreat ... it is there that we make our last stand. We enter via a long and circuitous path ... traversed at a slow meander ... or in a single step. We carry our cells with us at all times ... to be ready in an instant. Once inside, all that we are, or ever have been, gone.Loved ones search for us in vain. Their efforts yield no more than worn, battered shells, familiar only in their appearances. But, we are gone!

An instant ... a recognized name ... a fleeing peek through the bars ... maybe ... but, we are gone!

NEXT

We recently placed my dad in a nursing home. I wanted to paint something for him for his room. He will not know what it is. He may not understand that I painted it or who I am. I am not sure this is for him or about him.


A rough visualization of the painting has been swirling around in my head for about a week now and it has been a difficult week. I sketched out the basic composition and tried out numerous meanings. It was the meaning that escaped me, but it was meaning that I wanted. It was imperative that I frame the picture with reality.

Reality happens fast. One moment it is nowhere to be seen and the next, it stares you in the face. I think we are eye-to-eye now. I understood and knew that dad was losing it. I did not want to see that. It was standing there in the open field for all to see. I looked away. I did not want dad to go into the nursing home. I did not want to see that. The need was there, right on the mantel, for all to see. I looked away. Now, we are eye-to-eye. He is in the nursing home. It is ok. It is supposed to be.

I was determined to finish this painting. I roughed it out, but was not really happy with it. I sketched in the essential figures and laid in the basic color patterns that I had envisioned. But, reality is never that clear. I realized that I needed to mix the colors and to cloud the images. I clouded them to make them real. I realized that I needed to add meaning. I was not sure if I had the skill to add that to the canvas. I was not even sure that I had the skill to add that in my mind’s eye. I reversed the peephole. I wanted to look inside. I wanted you to look with me.

We must look into the abyss. What I see is my dad’s reality. But, it is also my future. Maybe the fear is for me … maybe for the rest of us as well. Hope is that we too will not understand. We too ...all of us ... will don the polka dot gown. We will slide the dunce’s hats on our heads and they will fit nicely. We too will ... without exception ...step in line and everyone will know we should be there and will hope, as I have for my dad, that we don’t know too much.

One day, we will step forward … and we will be NEXT.

Day's End

Must be getting old. Thinking about life stages recently and how we view the world differently as we age. Did this piece I call "Day's End". It simultaneously represents the feeling we get at the end of a hard day of work and the similar feelings of the day's end of a life. Used disks from various sized wire spools to represent three stages ... youth, middle years and unfortunately for me ... now.The majority of the piece is painted white for a neutral effect with a couple of exceptions. The red block is to center and ground the concept. The rusty metal shovel, along with the saw handles, symbolizes work. The rusty metal cup on the other hand brings to mind the pleasure associated with a deep, refreshing drink of cold water at the end of a hot day at work. It also represents the need for quenching our spiritual thirst in our latter years. I do not associate this need with any religious activity , but others may.



On each disk, I printed comments that I associate with each stage. Simply put, I catagorize the stages as the optimism and confidence of youth, the complaciency and appathy of the middle years and the questioning of old age. Linking each phase is our need to be heard ... to "listen to me". Should the piece ever be shown, the audience would be encouraged to add their own comments for each stage to the piece itself.

A final point that I incorporated into the piece is the withered pointing arm. Yes, it is the grim reaper ... though clothed in white. It points the inevitable way for all to see ... no matter the stage.

Williamsville Bridge Reincarnate

Ever since demolition of the Williamsville covered bridge began, I had been wracking my brains to come up with what I could do in the way of a commemorative sculpture. Ever at the ready for scavenging and dumpster-diving, I kept my eyes peeled for materials from the old bridge that would be suitable for a piece. Day after day of blistering heat and humidity convinced me that the process would be idea first … scavenge second … and as such I had only picked up a few old pegs and some signage.

It finally came to me in the night. So why do ideas only reveal themselves at 3:00 AM under the cover of darkness? Who knows! The theme that I envisioned was reincarnation. In this case, the bridge would, in a sense, adopt a new persona with the debris from the demolition serving as the catalyst for the change in form … the new life of the bridge. The piece would necessarily require numerous links in order to conceptually tie the old bridge life to the new one. I chose the idea of a nest as the foundation for the piece. To me, the nest was representative of the familiarities of home just as the bridge had done for the Williamsville community in some respects. I constructed the nest from splintered bridge siding and old wire found on site. Incorporated into the nest were a couple of the old wooden pegs from the original structure, construction site barrier tape, and old signage. I likened the idea of the reincarnation of the bridge to that of rebirth, or better yet, “new” birth and used rocks gathered from a trip to New Brunswick, Canada and local stones to serve as “eggs” in the nest. It was important to me to include rocks in the piece given that the bridge spanned the Rock River. Also, inside the nest, I place a white parrot and a doll’s head. The parrot represented voices from the past life of the bridge (ghosts). The doll head spoke for the future life of the bridge in its new form. The final decision I needed to make was how to display the piece. I chose to make the pedestal part of the work. I used an old stepladder my neighbor brought me from P'town (also a bridge between two spaces) as the foundation for the entire piece.

Open Studio - Barbies

I can’t explain the fascination, if fascination is the right word, with Barbie. I cannot help but poke fun at the concept and why this would be the example to present to children escapes me. It must be the “oh so perfect” rich girl image that I imagine. Good for me, because sarcasm is right up my alley. And at the end of that alley, tucked neatly away in the corner behind the trash can is my imagination. I strongly disagree with those who imply that imagination is bizarre. My imagination leads me down a serpentine path to be sure … but one based on pure logic. At least, that is how I imagine it.


Nevertheless, the net result is a special section of my open studio devoted to Barbie creations. I set it up like a shadowbox. You know how Barbie loves pink. The black background should be perfect for her pink accessories.
Finding enough Barbie’s to do the pieces justice was a difficult task and required a great deal of thought and flea market bargaining . In the end, I acquired a box of Barbie’s for a reasonable price. By that, I mean cheap. I started with a piece I call “the Barbie Bouquet”. The first version contrasted the deep greens of the evergreen boughs with the golden Barbie locks. For the open studio, I redid the piece using bare branches in order to make Barbie the centerpiece of the work … and the perfect centerpiece for any table.


Several weeks ago, my boss gave me a pink box with a see-through plastic window that she thought I might be able to use. I thought immediately of Barbie. The shape and window on the box reminded me of old footage of a Houdini trick in which he was place in a box with limited air, chained shut, and lowered into a river to drown, give out of air, or escape. Hence, Houdini Barbie. With a few minor adjustment to her legs (chop, chop) she fit the box perfectly. I tied her hands. Given the oxygen situation, I decided a blue face was most appropriate. The box was wired shut and locked. Houdini Barbie.






I had another box in the barn. I thought about for a Barbie project months ago. It was in the shape of a coffin and had been used at school to pass around a stuffed squirrel to scare new teachers. The squirrel deteriorated and I got the coffin. I envisioned Barbie peacefully in state in the coffin and I thought … Dracula Barbie. Dracula always rests in his natural earth from Transylvania. Natural soil for Barbie would have to be pink … an easy fix. A quick trip to JoAnn's Fabrics in Keene and I had black, glossy material for the cape. Paint the top of the coffin pink … add some fangs … and Dracula Barbie was ready for the show.




I confess the next two pieces were not my idea. I saw them in a store window in Quebec City. One was canned Barbie parts … like heads, or arms, or legs. I made my version using antique canning jars with the wire tops. I added dried hot peppers to each jar (because Barbie is so hot and spicy) and called my creation Pickled Barbie. The second piece I saw involved Barbie and an old meat grinder. Input Barbie heads to the grinder and outcome fur. I assumed the fur was fox since Barbie is so foxy. In my version, the output was golden thread. I called the piece “Meatgrinder Barbie.





Don’t blame me for the next two pieces. Blame Charlton Heston. You may or may not know that Charlton Heston has invaded my dreams and is intentionally trying to make my life miserable with his clinched-teeth maniacal grin. I thought I had seen the last of him until the other night … 3:00 AM to be exact. He slipped unseen through the backdoor of my dream world and secretly eased a thought into my head. I had been thinking about what one does with leftover Barbie parts. Pull off a head and then what. I want to give credit where credit is due … even to my nemesis CH. In the movie that CH did about a futuristic, over-populated world struggling to feed the hoards, two wafer-like soy cakes were developed and feed to the people. The protein cake was called soylent green. The snoopy policeman in the movie (CH) discovered the secret … soylent green was made from reprocessed body parts and fed to the people. The perfect solution was those leftover body parts … Soylent Green Barbie.
The last piece in the series is also a result of the extra parts I had on hand. Again, what so you use them for. I thought about how we use our DNA to clone man-make versions of ourselves. Well, sheep for now mostly. I created a new cloned version of Barbie. Done on a pure white background (hospital sanitary conditions for this procedure), I created the Cloned Barbie from those leftovers.




For now, I am done with Barbie creations … but you never know … I still have to sleep at night.

the moment when ALL is known

Finished this piece this week for the upcoming show. I suppose one could interpret it religiously with some Pearly Gates ideas or a final stand before a deity. But for me it represent the unbearable anguish one would face when the heart is laid open and all one's secret thoughts, beliefs, fears, etc. are laid bare for the world to see.

The head section had a feel similar to "The Scream" for me. I used a slightly reeling stance to represent the impact of the revulsion and the rusted, heart-shaped lock to be the heart. For me the piece speaks directly toward
our inadequacies or fear of inadequacies. "What is people really knew?" I wonder if this fear isn't stronger than the fear of death itself. The bones pieces represent the eyes forever watching us from the dark of the forest ... shining red. I used rock stacking on the base as a representation of the false solidity of mankind's achievements and structures ... easily toppled. On the lower base, I included a thumbprint. It seemed unique symbol for All there is about a person.

Window Paintings

My brother-in-law gave me about 7 old windows to play with and asked for a painting to go on his garage with one of them. I am trying out different flowers and using acrylics.

DOORS

When I moved to Williamsville, one of the unexpected pleasures of the move was the many treasures I found in the barn. Among those treasures were numerous old doors. Over the years, I have used the doors in a variety of ways for sculptures that I did. I think they are interesting for what they represent … especially whether they represent an entry or an exit point … or more general as a portal to whatever.

I had a large tree topple over in our lower yard during a fierce windstorm. Rather than cut it up and remove it, I made it into an art piece. One aspect of the piece involved the penetration of a door by one of the large limbs.

I also was invited to do a door piece for a project that the BUHS art classes was doing on door sculptures. I revisited my ideas on doors and what they represented and wrote the artist statement below for the show:


Art should speak to you … however, brief or complex the conversation.

Doors. It seemed so easy! Then, I spent an entire night tossing and turning … running idea, after idea, after idea though my head … rejecting one after another of my somewhat complex plans to do a door. Too much of this! Not enough of that! Shouldn’t a project like this say something?

It wasn’t until the night was spent that I realized my error. I needed to go straight to the source. To understand what a door has to say, you have to ask the door. Thus, my project is that conversation.

bru ‘07

DRIFTWOOD SERIES - BOATS

Inevitably, as I get older, I start to think about the how life is a series of stages and in particular the journey from stage to stage. It reminds me of an ocean voyage in a way. The trip can be calm and serene or just as easily a stormy and terrifying affair. I wanted to do a piece to represent movement through those stages of life. I decided to represent this idea using a voyage analogy. I did two pieces with this in mind.

Into the Breakers

Some of life’s journeys are stormy to say the least. When I install this sculpture, I like to hang it at about a 45 degree angle, right side higher. I was thinking about the emotional battering you face when confronting life issues. The image I got was of one of the beach rescue boats on the Australian beaches as they launch the boats into the heavy surf. The boats are almost standing on end as they crash into the waves.

Voyage on the River Styx

Our lives certainly aren’t all turmoil … at least mine isn’t. Most of the time, life seems to gently roll along toward our inevitable conclusion. I thought about pictures I had seen before of an old barge drifting slowly along with Charon poling souls across the River Styx to the gates of the underworld. I fashioned a piece with that in mind. For me, the center bottom driftwood plank feels like a like a dangling oar from the vessel.

DRIFTWOOD SERIES

My driftwood series is primarily about shapes and contrasts. One of my favorite things to do is to scrounge for just the right pieces of driftwood. When I go to get driftwood, I am actually very selective and quite often have a particular shape in mind. I find as many approximations of that shape as I can find. I look for what I consider to be unique shapes … odd bends … swirls … geometric patterns … textures … colorations. This combined with the endless array of metal objects in varied stages of deterioration provide me with a multitude of directions available to me for sculpture pieces. Most of the work on a piece is “seeing” how those materials look and feel together. Just adjusting the angle of a piece a few degrees can make all the difference.

Often, I name my driftwood pieces. The name is usually associated with the found objects incorporated into the piece and the image that I get when I view the piece. Other times, it may be focal points in the piece to which I am drawn. Below are a few examples.


Infinity

I liked the curved sliver of stainless steel that I found. It felt like energy was flowing along its path. I positioned it to parallel the line of one of the driftwood segments. It felt like it would go on forever. I donated this piece for a silect auction to bennefit a local pre-school in Williamsville. I was very excited to hear that I friend had purchased the piece.

Sturgeon

Anne and I were driving through New York and saw a sign about the watershed with the sturgeon symbol on it. When I was looking through my driftwood pile, I saw a fragment that looked like a mouth to me. I made the rest of the piece to fit that mouth! This piece went to my friends James and Lynn for their beach cottage on Folly Beach.


Portal

I love holes … and looking into them. Look where it got Alice! This sculpture revolves around two important pieces. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stick with the orange top and the matrix on holes on it. The other important piece is the knothole. When I view the piece, I want to simultaneously look through the knothole to get an image of the orange pattern and at the same time view the pattern over the top of the knothole in an unrestricted view. I want to play with an idea. Is it the same pattern or does the different perspective make it entirely something else? It reminds me of a book I read called Einstein’s Dreams that talked about multiple realities. Maybe I am just falling down the rabbit hole and don’t realize it.


After the Fall

This sculpture is not as depressing as you might first think. Yes, I was thinking about what it might be like after nuclear confrontations … after the fallout. But, the piece is really about hope and resilience. I wanted to show the starkness associated with such an event. In the middle of all of this, is the face of a child, peeking out from behind the debris. The face is symbolic of our ability to survive.

I have talked with several people that view the piece differently … from demonic faces peering out to fallen angels. Interesting.

DISSOCIATIVE EPISODE

My friend, Nancy, brought me a present one day and said, “Here. I thought you could do something with this.” In the bag, was a large dilapidated doll body and the head that had been torn off of it. The wheels started to turn. By the time I got home, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to play with the idea of detachment of the head and the body. Through the physical separation of the two pieces, I should be able to speak to the psychological separation of our intellect from our actions. He was out of his head. She’s out of her mind. He has a good head on his shoulders. What were you thinking? You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached. Don’t we all have experiences where we make a decision and forge ahead with a plan, regardless of the facts we know to be true. The facts don’t apply … because we don’t want them to apply.

First, I needed to physically isolate the head-intellect from the body-heart. Boxes, boxes, boxes. I built tightly fitting boxes to hold the head and the body. I did not lose the implication of these boxes being coffins, but I am not going there right now. I lined the body box with surreal images. This background represented the external stimuli that constantly bombards our heart, our emotional selves. I did not use the same approach on the head box. My rationale was that such ideas would be dismissed due to our intellect. I wanted to connect the body with nature and natural symbols … a feather, a rock at its feet, an umbilical cord. I addressed the issue of the headless corpse with a bird’s nest and rocks. Bird-brained. Rocks for brains. The outside of the box was covered with dated license plates. This was to strengthen the idea of age and tradition and hanging on to what has been rather than the current factual interpretation. I covered the head box with copper sheets that had been scored with geometric patterns. I wanted the bright, clean colors and the patterns to further represent the intellect.

The two boxes were not attached. The smaller head box was positioned in any direction atop the body box. For me, this represented the disassociation of intellect from reality – the head from the body.

BARBIE BOUQUET

I have had a fascination with Barbie dolls for a very long time. It is not what you may think. I was always a solid GI Joe guy in my youth with no regrets. It is more about what it represents. I will use the term “she” because we tend to think of Barbie as a real person. However, Barbie as an art medium has unlimited possibilities. I remember talking with an artist, Paul Hoedecker, many years ago about a Flying Barbie piece he had done with Barbies, circling on a motorized circle frame hanging from the ceiling. I was intrigued.

I set out to find my Barbies. The cheap ones! My search began in Harper’s Ferry West Virginia at a local flea market. I spotted a dealer with a box of Barbies and found about 17 to my liking. The duel commenced. We haggled, we fought, we accused each other of being crazy an unreasonable. The dealer wanted $10 each. I wanted them for $2 each. She countered that she couldn’t because the Barbies were her daughters and had sentimental value. I responded that it was irrelevant whether you sell your sentiment for $2 or $10 and if sentiment was the issue what was she doing selling them anyway? We parted company.

A couple of weeks later, I was at the Newfane flea market. Again, I spotted a dealer with a small box of Barbies. As Barbie aged, she must have enjoyed living in a box with other clones. Whatever! I was looking at about eleven and offered $25. The dealer countered with $45 and a lecture on the value of Barbies as collectables. I mentioned that collectables did not live in a box and walked away. I overhead the dealer tell his friend that I knew nothing about the values or antiques and that I was a jerk.

Five minutes later, I came by a lady doing her yard sale at the flea market. You guessed it. She had a tubberware container full of Barbies. As I looked through it, the lady said, “You can have the whole thing for $5.” The price was right. Done deal! I didn’t count them until I got home. It was over 30.

Now, what to do? I have a small box coffin about her size. I’ll fill it partially with earth painted pink. In goes the Barbie with small fangs that I will fashion for her. I will call it Dracula Barbie. It is on my list of To Do’s.[It is not on the TO Do anymore. Got it done over July 4th weekend.] I have other ideas … for just the heads maybe. I have used a couple of the Barbie arms and legs for miscellaneous work.







[Had another idea just before the 4th. Houdini Barbie. Used a pink box, painted a blue, oxygen-deprived face, tied hands, and wired and locked box. I think it may have been Houdini Barbie's last Beijing performance.]

But for now, Barbie Bouquet. A nice vase … some greenery … a jaunty selection of Barbies … and there you have it … Barbie Bouquet. [Lastly, I have done some canning jars with Barbie heads ... and hot peppers cause sheis so hot ... and some canned arms and legs. Also set up Meatgrinder Barbie. When you grind the heads, golden thread is produced. ]

CHINA PROJECT: BASKET MAN

As we journeyed further south in China, we traveled through more agricultural areas. In these areas, we began to see more and more of the basket men of China. We were taken by the tremendous loads some of these men and women hauled using simple basket carriers over their shoulders. I wanted to initiate discussions about the physical nature of the work that these poorer workers were doing and the fact that both men and women shared this task equally.

I fashioned a stick figure from driftwood and a shoulder basket from sticks and wire I had around the house. It mirrored the primitive baskets I saw some of the workers using. I also fashioned a cone-shaped hat form sheet metal similar to the ones I observed.

The loads that I created for my sculpture were made from driftwood sticks and had English-Chinese words, phrases and numbers. I had the students use these in vocabulary exercises. As simple as this piece was, it still generated numerous questions from the students.

It seemed only fitting that the basket man reside in my gardens.

CHINA PROJECT: DRAGON MEMORY LOG

My favorite piece in the China Project Series is the Dragon Memory Stick. I had about a 4-foot length of driftwood that had a snake-like shape with its head slightly raised. I added tuffs of red wire bundles and ruted bells to add a bit of color and burned in two eyes. I made a list of about 100 things that I did while on the China trip in the format of “I action verb object”. ”I walked on the Great Wall of China” and “I ate the duck’s head at the Peking Duck dinner” are two examples. These statements were written on the log and then burned into the wood. The entire circumference of the log was covered. A stand was made to hold the memory log by reversing two similar driftwood V-branches and securing them to a base. When used with groups of students, the statements on the log served as both catalysts for discussions and to encourage the viewer to add their own experiences in their own travels.

This piece has found a home in my living room and it brings back fond memories of the trip each time I look at it.

CHINA PROJECT: DRAGON STONE

A significant part of what I try to do with a piece in a project like this is to somehow link a visual representation symbolically with some aspect of the Chinese history or lore. In this case, I wanted to link to the use of dragons in the Chinese legends and lore. I chose to do this with one of my hanging stones. I chose a stone with a rectangular shape that would represent the elongated face of a dragon. To this, I added a pairs of ram-like horns to the sides. These I fashioned by coiling copper tubing and then pounding it flat. I used several sections of wire bent to resemble lightning or fast-moving air and place them atop the head to give a sense of hot air rushing backward from the dragon’s breath. The final adaptations were the Chinese symbol hanging beneath the head and red flowing hair from the top. My usual hanging stone beads and feathers finalized the piece.

CHINA PROJECT: The GREAT WALL

During the summer of 2008, I took a three week trip with a group of teachers sponsored by SIT. Each participant had to complete a project upon his/her return to promote better understanding of the Asian culture. When I applied for the trip, I indicated that I would do an educational PowerPoint presentation and present it to students and/or outside groups. It was not until our flight home that I approached our leader, Bruce, and told him that there was no way I could do the presentation … both the students and I would be bored to death. Instead, I would do a series of sculptures reflecting the things I had seen and experienced. My project included five pieces, photos of the trip, a bulletin board, and souvenirs. I was allowed to exhibit the project in the foyer of the school for a couple of weeks and to meet with several classes to discuss the project. Later, I installed the work at the Vermont Asian Center in West Brattleboro for a show and discussion during Gallery Walk.

The China Project: The Great Wall

My goal for each of the pieces for the project was to introduce aspects of the Chinese experience in a way that would stimulate thought and questions by the students. With The Great Wall, I wanted to play with the idea of walls in general and whether they exist to keep something or someone in or keep them out.

I used some old barnboard for the base of the sculpture and smashed some smaller pieces for extending the sides. Using the irregular background pattern and by stacking pieces to vary the planes I hoped to give the effect of mountainous terrain. I further elevated the plane using smaller pieces of driftwood and flat, rounded stones for further layering. I broke the stone that I had brought back from China into smaller pieces and used it to fashion a serpentine wall across the piece. On the lower side of the wall, I used driftwood sticks placed vertically to represent the peoples of China amassed behind the wall. The question is again to protect them from invaders or to keep them in and ignorant of the outside world. Above the wall, I lined the smaller pieces with a glue that dries in yellowish bubbled fashion and gives the appearance of clouds and mist across the mountainous terrain.

I was lucky to be in China just before the Olympics. In the upper left hand portion of the wall sculpture, I place five rings (representing the Olympic rings) made from sliced beef bones. I included this to stimulate discussion of the impact of the Olympics on the country and the preparations that were being made to host the event.

Finally, I tucked a small imprint of a dog’s paw on the lower right hand side. From this, we initiated discussion about, what you eat in foreign environments that seems strange to us and what we eat that would seem strange there.

DRIFTWOOD SERIES: RESILIENCE

Driftwood Series: Resilience
Summer 2009
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I see this piece as a tribute to our ability to endure and to survive. In the early stages of the construction, my focus was on a plant or bush shape using the driftwood and some rusty metal pieces I had selected. I had an old metal top taken from some unidentifiable container and had positioned it to represent a dead, dried-up flower pod. I chose driftwood pieces that were longer and barer looking to give the piece a starker appearance and tied them together with rusted metal strips bent like unfurling ribbon. The piece was well on its way to being a really dark piece.

Everything changed. I was digging through the driftwood pieces and came upon a bare, straight piece that was bluish-green in color. As soon as I saw the piece, I knew what it was that I wanted to say. The thought that consumed me was “no matter what”. I would use the green stick to represent a new stalk emerging from the detritus of dead branches. The piece would be about rebirth and revival … about survival. No matter what had or was to happen, this plant would make it. No matter what has or will happen to mankind … we will make it. Because, like the plant … we are resilient.

I promised one of the teachers at school that I would work with her classes on making things from found objects. I decided to hang a piece in her classroom as an example of what one might make and chose Resilience. I wanted to talk to the kids about how one aspect or piece of a sculpture can define the whole piece. By chance, my principal visited the classroom and saw the piece. She purchased the piece for her husband for his birthday. It now resides in Brattleboro.

DRIFTWOOD SERIES: COMPLEXITIES OF THE HEART

Driftwood Series: Complexities of the Heart
Fall 2009
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Most often, when I am developing a sculpture, I focus on the shapes and relationships of the materials to one another first. Later on, the piece starts to come together and I begin to form mental images of where I might go with the piece. At that pint, I am doing a lot of trial and error and select and discard different materials that seem promising from my stockpiles. I may twist and turn a particular piece of driftwood for what seems to be forever in search of a particular angle that speaks to me. On the other hand, I can sometimes lay selected objects in a pile and know they will work together without further examination. The process sometimes suggests a topic, or theme, or title for the final piece.

When I was working on this sculpture, it was different. I was already thinking about relationships and how difficult and complex they were. I don’t usually start with a theme, but in this case I knew I wanted to do something involving this topic. My first step was to write down a list of words that came to mind and that I associated with relationships in some way … layers, diverse, embrace, hard, soft, heart, black, askew, shape, etc. I dove into my materials piles to see what I could find. I selected a variety of shapes and sizes of driftwood that might combine in such a way as to express the layering and to imply the complexity. Unbelievably, in my metals bin, I found a heart that I had made for a sculpture that had been dismantled. I utilized the hardness of the coarse wire mesh used to make the heart and a layer of black paint to hint at the potential darker side of dealing with relationships. I also wanted to contrast the softer, more natural wood with the use of harder metal to further add a sense of opposing ideas and clashing.

Positioning was important to me in the assemblage. I wanted the piece to be slightly askew and I wanted a sense of movement (I chose left to right across the placement of the heart). The heart is purposefully not centered. However, it is cradled by curved driftwood pieces that I used to represent arms and the idea of an object being nestled or embraced. Contrast again … black heart … embracing.

At some undetermined moment, I kinda know at a piece is done. In this case, I hung the sculpture on my barn wall and tried moving around the room to check it out at different angles. The key words heart and complex seemed to stick. I chose Complexities of the Heart for a title and it seemed right.

A couple of days later Anne called me at work to ask me about a price for the piece. A friend’s sister, Mary, had stopped by and had seen the piece in the barn. Mary purchased the piece and took it to her cabin to go with an earlier piece her sister had gotten from me for her. The sculpture now resides in Minnesota.

WELCOME TO MY ART BLOG

My art pieces generally have names. I give them the names … so maybe they are just aliases … aka. This blog tells the stories behind my art. In reality, I cannot actually describe my art to you. Have you read Einstein’s Dreams? It is about multiple realities or multiple interpretations of his theory of relativity. I believe the author has a point. I cannot describe my art to you. I can only describe my interpretation of the art. My reality. What you see when you view the piece may not be the same. I don’t mean that you see it differently. I mean it might not be the same. If you adopt it, you may give it your family name.

The process of creating art is always complex though, at times, it may not appear so. The process is composed of a multitude of both complementary and oppositional aspects. Like content … materials … intent … innuendo. Every aspect has purpose and every step along the way has a reality of its own. The process is filled with something else. It is filled with what is not there. Like I said, it’s complex. When it all comes together, it has meaning. That meaning, taken with the physical, gives the piece a sense of wholeness. Circles. Circles of life. They show up in everything I do.

When you achieve a state of wholeness in a piece, it has a voice. It’s the voice that is used to enable a conversation between the piece and the viewer. I think that is what I am ultimately seeking. Not every viewer and every piece can have a conversation. But when they do … it is special.