My Sculpture Blog
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3/16/23
The KDS1-VW pre-order is now LIVE!
3/12/23
The KDS1-VW
In the video above, I do my best to detail many of the design changes that I was able to incorporate.
Materials I have experimented with so far are as follows. Left to right above is red stabilized BoxElder, two tone Amboyna Burl with sapwood, and blue stabilized Boxelder.
So thats it, this work is special to me because it set me on a path to realizing that machining is a profession that exists simultaneously as an industry, a craft, and science with a built in means to apply it. It is a process that uniquely blurs the line between fine art, craft, and design in way that I could use to tell a story about the idea of craft itself.
For those interested in adding this sculpture to your collections, the sign up will go live on Thursday March 16th at 11AM EST.
12/12/22
Sculpture BY222422
Hello Everyone. New work time. And since this is a proper one of a kind sculpture, it adheres to the naming routine I developed ages ago for this kind of work. So this sculpture's proper title is BY222422 Maybe one day I will tell everyone what that means.
I have a fair amount of confidence that things will hold, but if they don’t, I am most curious to learn what effect being bolted to a metal support will have. Will it help keep it in place, or cause the wood to crack or fracture along its connecting points? There are a lot of machined fits in this piece that I just do not often see in wooden objects so there are plenty of opportunities for things to happen, and if they do, will they add to the piece? Will they be interesting in their own way?
My attitude is, let's find out.
Note for collectors: As of this initial writing, this piece is currently available for collection.
11/2/22
S3C
Hello everyone. I am back from the shop with new work to share. This time it is a trio of little wonders simply titled the "S3C". This work is the third and final design in my "bead-like" series that I've been intermittently working on this year.
For those just joining this project, or those in need of refreshing, above is a family photo of the full series. I have taken as my starting point for this series the simple idea of the inherent difficulty in creating interesting interior space using the reductive processes inherent to machine work. In iterating around this simple challenge, I hope to build to something a little more complex in the near future.
For now these little works are excelling in more ways than one.
Notes for collectors: As with the other two works in the series, I will be offering this design up as a one time limited edition. The sale of these works will be a pre-order with work to begin a few weeks after the sign up closes.
Pricing is going to be a little bit tricky for this work because it is both a larger work, and one with a few variables in terms of material selection.
The body of this work is machined in 6061 Aluminum and then anodized, you will have a wide choice of colors for the body of the work.
The screw details on the work will only be available in stainless steel (this is my artistic decision)
The inner rods will be available in either stainless steel, or brass (this is my artistic decision)
The outer (I am calling them "fingers" ) will be available in either Stainless steel, Brass, or Titanium Damascus. This selection will effect the price of the work as Titanium Damascus is a considerably more expensive and time consuming material to work.
I do not post pricing on publicly facing media, but I will have all relevant details and pricing sorted out by the time the sign up begins and it will be listed at the sign up link.
The sign up will go live on Monday November 7th at 11 AM EST. I will post the sign up link to my email newsletter, here on the blog, as well as on my instagram page.
Thank you and appreciate your support for my work.
7/30/22
The Sculptural Knife Urn or SKU
I can't talk about this project without partially re-stating the impetus for embarking on this project. It has been helpful revisiting my thesis with each installment, as it has allowed me to chew on my original assumptions and reframe them in light of new developments. So for those who like my longer posts, this is one of them.
On reflection, I've come to realize this project isn’t really about knife making–it isn’t about vases, bowls, or urns either–it is about the state of craft as we find it. It is an appreciation of the idea that craft isn’t a rest-home for idiosyncratic or cast off processes, or where practitioners of defunct trades go to retire–it is a natural step in the material progress of our species.
I talk a lot on this blog about how using modern machine tools to make art is a relatively new phenomenon, but I don’t think I have accurately portrayed what I mean by that. Indeed artists have been employing machine tools to produce various kinds of artwork for decades–a century or more even–so I should clarify what I mean when I say that machining–as a vocation–is becoming a new art form.
While the tools I use have been employed in the production of fine art – through various fabrication shops, organizational structures, and outsourced expertise–it is only just now beginning to exist as a studio craft movement in the same vein as other more established craft traditions–one who's practice is directly engaged with the medium rather than just being a means to an end.
However, the structure of this outfit was as a design house and factory. It was run by teams of artisans and designers working to produce decorative and utilitarian pieces. There were plenty of successful attempts at art, but by and large it was a commercial affair that catered to a decorative class of collectors. The work was constrained by the socio economic guardrails of what a “collectable” glass object could be. In order to sustain the factory, the vast majority of its output was stained glass, lighting, vases, and the like.
Contrast this with the birth of the studio glass movement.
In 1962, on the heels of a boom in interest in the studio ceramics movement, Artist Harvey Littleton and research scientist Dominick Labine developed a design for a small and affordable furnace that could melt glass. This small advent removed the need for teams of operators as well as greatly reduced financial and physical infrastructure needs. It singlehandedly created the conditions for solo artists to bring the production of glass art directly into their studios. In the same manner as a painter might paint, artist were able to work freely with glass, away from outside eyes and commercial influence. This meant glass art could be practiced by one artist in one studio.
Glass art's popularity began to grow and this era saw an explosion in the creative output of artists using glass. The guard rails were suddenly gone and a piece of glass art could be literally anything (or nothing at all). Experimentation was rampant and this gave rise to the fine art landscape we see in glass today. Many of the examples of glass sculpture we see in museums were born out of this era.
The story of glass art resonates with me because very similarly, and until very recently, artists looking to leverage machine tools and modern digital fabrication technology for the creation of art would likely have needed to rely on design firms, tech schools, and fabrication studios with teams of specialists who could assist in programing, running, and maintaining the machines that were beyond their experience and financial reach.
Some additional thoughts: I want to close this out by saying that I try to be careful about subscribing to various dogmas. I have enumerated a very particular way of thinking about the evolution of craft. One that simplifies and ignores differences in geography and time (that is, people used tools and materials differently, in different places, at different times throughout history). In doing so I have no doubt implied that there is some greater value or purpose in creating “fine art” as it is understood in western culture. But this is not quite right.
Technical Notes: In building this piece, I. was able to incorporate many of the techniques and processes I have been honing over the years. Most recent of those being the dyeing and stabilization of hardwoods.
Which brings me to the blades themselves. I have tried to rationalize my use of razor sharp blades in various ways. Now that I am at the end of my journey, I think they need little justification. Their aesthetic contribution to the work is very evident in this piece. That they add a conceptual layer to the work is only a further bonus.
Above is a process video that illustrates this turning operation for the blades (approximately the 13:25 mark). I tried to capture the bulk of the steps that brought this piece of art into being, but life in the shop gets hectic and I did miss a few steps. Some other video clips were lost due to technical issues. But all in all, it is still a great ride.
7/5/22
The S2B
This piece builds on the SB 312 sculpture I released earlier this year. Whereas that work was a static sculpture with purely aesthetic aspirations, this next entry has kinetic elements that drastically change the way the work is experienced.
Mechanics were not the only thing influencing the look of this sculpture. If you remember from my post on SB-312 One thing I hoped to achieve in this series was to explore some popular exotic metals—in a careful and thoughtful manner that played directly to a single chosen material.
Admittedly, my use of Mokume-gane here is pretty straight forward and consistent with other machined art that I have seen (we all learn from doing though). The finish on this prototype is a simple etch with ferric chloride to bring out contrast in the metals and matte the finish.
Some closing thoughts.
As I continue to pursue these small sculptures, it has emerged that my two different modes of working, kinetic and more traditional sculpture, might be slowly converging.
I am less wedded to the idea of incorporating a mechanic for my small work, and more open to the idea in larger one-of-a-kind pieces. Sometimes I begin a design with a mechanic in mind, but it becomes unworkable and I abandon it in favor of a more accomplished static sculpture. The inverse is also becoming true and I have found myself designing larger works with no intention of adding kinetic elements, only to be tempted by opportunities to do just that.
Perhaps, just maybe, I am become less rigid in what I hope to achieve with any given design, favoring a more fluid process. I think one might describe that, as personal growth.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the piece.
I will post the sign up link to my email newsletter, here on the blog, as well as on my instagram page.
So with that said, if any of that sounds scary to you, if any patina or change in the material is unacceptable to you, or you are a serious fidgeter who wants the most durable object you can get, I would simply steer you to the stainless steel version of the work. Stainless steel, without a doubt, will outlast us all.