Each year around Christmas the Indianapolis Arts Council hosts a show titled “TINY” and each year I think I’ll enter something, then don’t get it done. This year I was in the midst of creating the WOOD|STONE|METAL artwork when the call came out so I actually created some pieces to submit!
All these use some combination of natural stones, painted stones, driftwood, balsa wood, metal, paint & ink. Basically the exact same materials I was creating larger pieces from. I don’t really have any step–by-step images of their creation so I’ll share with you images of each individual piece so you can get a better idea of the details.
One of the first pieces I created in my newest series “Wood|Stone|Metal”, this is “Serendipity”. The entire series could have been named that, it just came together in a delightful way! For many years I’ve collect bits of driftwood, sticks, stones and other items as I’ve traveled through life knowing that “someday” I would do something with them. With that stash of fun things around I was posed the question “what did you really enjoy doing as a child?” and immediately my love for collecting rocks in a shoebox popped into my mind. Even if they were just small pieces of gravel from our driveway adorned with paint, I spent many happy hours with rocks, as well as playing in nature with whatever I could find. But how to incorporate all that into works of art? That was when the exploring began. Sorting, stacking, painting, and arranging I began to gather/create items that might work together in a natural way. With the plasma cutter I started a collection of steel and copper shapes to use.
From my newly gathered stash of scrap balsa wood pieces I began to shape organic, rock-like pieces.
Rocks were pulled from jars, boxes and storage spots…as well as the landscape!
Driftwood, collected on my travels, was unearthed and more sticks gathered in our woods were stripped, cleaned and bleached to add to the pile.
I also began experimenting with paint on stones.
Over the course of several weeks I gathered, created and prepared. Then it was a bit like solving puzzles, choosing which pieces went with which, how they should be arranged and what made me happiest. Here are images of the process for this piece as it evolved:
Although I ended up with more wall art than sculptures, it was fun to express myself in a more dimensional form. Look for both types to be featured over the following weeks!
Wow…didn’t realize this never got posted! It’s been hanging around in the “drafts” folder since September! Ooops!
The second of two commissioned art pieces I created this summer, Diversify hangs above a children’s exam table in a medical facility. Bold colored paint over lightweight balsa wood, wires and glass balls (repurposed and supplied by the client) were all brought together to make this fun ceiling sculpture. Here are some of work-in-progress images:
And a few different views of the installed piece:
I really enjoyed designing and creating this piece…as you’ll see in future post I continued to work with balsa for several more months!
This summer I was commissioned to create two art pieces for a new medical building. The first piece, shown here after installation, is titled “Transit”.
Created with a series of six bicycle wheels, paint and wire each piece leads to the next, both with color and motion. Here is some of the process that I used during it’s creation:
Unpainted wheels, lined up and waiting
Tiny wood pieces, used to attach the wires to the wheels
Wire attaching devices, tucked into the wheels
Painting the wheels
Paint on the saw horses…they’re beautiful now!
Freshly painting wheels
Attachments for hanging
Twisting wire to attach to the wheels
After painting and fully assembling each of the six pieces, they were ready for the installation date! As they ended up being installed in a stairwell getting them up on the walls and arranged was quite a challenge. One that I left to someone with more experience and expertise on ladders and scaffolding! The arrangement was changed a few times, the top image is the final result. Five pieces run up the stairwell with a sixth piece hanging at the top on the landing. Here are some more pictures of the finished artwork:
Original configurationClose up detailsAnother detail imageSingle piece on the landing at the top of the stairwell
Next blog post I’ll share the other commissioned artwork for this facility. Plus some other new artwork created with the same material…once I got into it, I just kept going!
A Randomly Creative Blog 