For this months entry, I want to start out by thanking everyone who came to the opening at the BMA earlier this month. The official head count from the Museum was 781 people, which for an art opening, is an incredible reception. I hope a good time was had by all who attended.
Above is my first attempt at incorporating black into my palette. It would seem easy enough, but this one little change forced me to approach the work quite a bit differently and led to a number of atypical design decisions. One of the more practical effects of this was to force me to shoot against a white background instead of my traditional black back drop. I am still mentally adjusting to this new look, so let me know if you think it is an improvement or not.
I've actually wanted to do a black sculpture for some time, but was waiting for the right composition to come along, and after working up multiple sketches, I finally hit upon this design. One interesting aspect to this piece is that I designed the main body to rotate freely along its axle after assembling. I thought it could would work well as both a wall mounted piece or a desk top piece. So I wanted to make sure it could be adjusted to just the right angle for each installation. The result is that it rotates freely by hand. However I made sure it does not roll like it was on a bearing, mostly because I am still averse to the kitsch that most kinetic art brings with it, but its still quite a tactile joy to rotate it in your hand.
One last table top shot for scale
Also while I was working out the detail for the center section, I decided it was an attractive enough element to experiment with some other color combinations. So I made a few extra and this led to the two works here.
Due to the Anodizing process I use to color the aluminum, and the small number of alternative colored metals in general, I am fairly limited on the number of colors I can use and the way I can apply them, but I think its those types of limitations that lead to creative solutions so I try to experiment where I can.
Milling the offset sockets to create the helical leg arrangement.
And finally.
This is the concept sketch for my next project, It is still evolving so I can't say for certain that the color scheme above will remain, but it is where the design currently stands. Comments are always welcome.
