Sculpture and Location

The Sun will soon revolve around the Earth.
 Again.

Hold that thought. Now add this one.

A sculptor's job is not just to make objects but also to make people aware of their physical relationships in space. And time.

So you could say the function of a sculptor is like the function of a preposition,* to better articulate your awareness of the space you're in.


You + (at, to from, around, beside, above....) + object = spatial awareness. Hopefully an aesthetic experience.

http://artsytime.com/antique-maps/

 All these thoughts from the 9/13/2010 NY Times article, A Tech World that Centers on the User, by Nick Bilton. Bilton draws from his new book, I live In The Future And Here's How It Works to talk about how our ideas about geography and location are radically changing.

With the new technology, if you need directions while driving or walking, you can click the button that says "locate me".  A dot representing you will appear on screen and as you move, the maps will change and keep up with you.

That's completely different from trying to find yourself on a printed map. Remember the frustration of turning the map upside down or sideways if you changed direction or had to retrace your route?

Quoting the NY Times article: ...the best way to begin to understand the sweeping changes that the consumer of entertainment and information is now in the center. That center changes everything. It changes you sense of community. It changes the way you view the information, news and data coming directly to.you.
Now you are the starting point. Now the digital world follows you, not the other way around.

Like I said at the beginning. You, in your particular location on earth, are back, once again, at the center of the universe. And our spinning culture will have new/old perceptions of we articulate space.

(*Preposition : a function word that combines with a noun phrase to form a phrase which expresses a modification or predication. Webster, 10th edition)

Sculpture and 3D Printing

If you've never seen sculpture arrise from a primordial goo, you've never seen 3D printing. You know it's state of the art technology, but it still seems like magic.

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Scott Summit, co-founder of Bespoke Innovations, with a prosthetic limb.

Kevin Moloney for The New York Times

Charles Overy, founder of LGM, with a model of a resort in Vail, Colo. “We used to take two months to build $100,000 models,” he said, adding that now they cost about $2,000.

Read the New York Times article, A Technology Sets Inventors Free to Dream, by Ashlee Vance.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of The Future", 1961 (Clarke's third law)

Sculpture and the Garden

What do we mean when we say a plant is sculptural?

Do we mean its shape is easy to understand?

Euphorbia Obesa

Is it sculptural if it acts as metaphor and makes us think of something else?

Read about this Edifice Complex.

Is a plant sculptural if it has directly inspired sculpture?

photo credit

Medieval  Crosiers photos from the blog, Catholic Eye Candy

Can a plant be sculpture?

Sculpture and the Design Hell Condo

For vacation we rented a condo in Provincetown, Cape Cod. Newly built, away from the commotion of Commercial Street, attractive landscaping, lovely deck.

And then we went inside...........

The online photographs we'd seen did not do it justice.

We pondered the space as if we were forensic detectives trying to understand the owner's motives.   The clash of black and white pattern on pattern, objects and styles was assaulting. What was the owner thinking?

The black and white patterns on the wall paper, stairs, and the hall carpet visually flattened space. Several times I caught myself trying to understand what was pattern on pattern and what had physical depth. Even found myself testing spaces with my foot before stepping further, as if the vacation rental had suddenly become a visual field experiment.

Judge for yourself.

In the photos below, what is pattern, what has depth and space? See how the banisters flatten out and become 2D when they're in front of the wallpaper?  What is the black of the stairwell and what is the black stripes on the carpet? Add movement and the result is vertigo.

I ask again, "Who does this in a rental?"

I was in the space for less than 15 minutes before I started taking things OFF the walls. I couldn't relax. It reminded me of the Oscar wilde quote: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go." The wallpaper stayed, but a lot of the art came down to live in a closet, behind the couch, or on top of the refridgerator for the week.


Who makes stuff this awful?
Who buys it and thinks it a good idea for furnishing a rental? These hideous plates stalked you in the kitchen.....

The Girls by John Waters. Not cheap, though it looks it, at $650 for three.

That was answered when I took these scary "porcelain collector plates" down from the kitchen walls. They're by long term Provincetown resident, the prince of bad taste, John Waters. A very limited edition................. Thank god.

The house decoration was a major incentive to spend more time at the beach....

Sculpture and The Last of Summer

It's so easy to fall into the trap of working all the time.
Even going on vacation requires tremendous effort, what I call "achieving escape velocity". That means finishing every necessary project.

It's time to take a break and enjoy the last of summer. It's raining today and I'm loving it. The garden and land badly need it. I can feel everything relaxing in the soft rain.

Here's a few highlights of summer at Gracewood Studio and garden.

I wait all year for these Conca D'Or lilies to bloom. I'm 6 feet tall and look up into their blooms. The fragrance fills the entire garden. There are lovely white Casablanca lilies in the garden, but while these 8 foot tall monsters are blooming, they're all I want to look at.

Travel took us to the east coast and to California, making stops to see sculpture.

I made a pilgrimage to the home and studio of August Saint-Gaudens, a national historic site in Cornish, New Hampshire. Many posts on this coming up. It was inspiring and humbling. He was an amazing sculptor. 

Amour Caritas by Augustus Saint Gaudens as seen in the reflecting pool.

Above the clouds, at sunset at San Simeon, Ca.

Also upcoming posts on the sculpture at San Simeon, aka Hurst's castle.

Aside from vacations, I love working outdoors in summer, when just looking up from working gives an unexpected pleasure.
Have you taken a break today and looked up or down?

Sculpture and the Farwest Show #4

More photos of the flame panels and art at the New Varieties Showcase booth at the Farwest Show.

I think this photo, below, looks like a Rousseau painting. It just needs a lurking monkey or tiger....

Gracewood Studio bas relief panel, 4x6 feet

Theresa Cheek of Art's the Answer wrote in to ask, "What happens to the panels now that the show is over?"

Like any trade show, many people worked long hours and moved TONS of materials for a brief three day dazzle. The party's already over. The panels are getting rained upon in my driveway.

I'm going to remove the panels from their frames and see what they look like painted a dark faux bronze with lots of bright "metal" highlights and green verdigris dripping everywhere.

Then maybe it's time to open an Etsy shop instead of packing them into my overstuffed woodshed...?
The frames were designed to hold the weight of AAC concrete, so I'll design and carve bas relief panels for them.

Sculpture and the Farwest Show #3

   

Here are both panels almost finished. I went back and took a last look at the Buddha sculpture and realized that it was much greener than I remembered it. Didn't want these panels to be too bright so I mixed up a green/umber tint and applied it liberally. I said a quick prayer as I was leaving on vacation at 4 the next morning. This was a make it or break it act.

The 4 x 8 foot tall panels were designed to have the lower two feet buried inside the raised planting bed of the New Varieties Showcase booth at the Farwest Show. 

The Farwest show is a big production. Oregon grows much of the nursery stock for the entire country. The nursery industry goes all out to show the newest plants, latest technologies and horticultural practices. Walking the show and getting new plant catalogs was an unexpected perk.

        Here's how it looked. 

The New Varieties Showcase is a collaboration between breeders, growers,  and a team of designers and contractors from the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers (ANLD). The lead designer for this Asian themed space was Iftikhar Ahmed.