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.