Livengood Studio

Another concrete and cedar sculpture. The first design had the cedar upright centered between the concrete “wings”. It lacked any tension. By slanting the concrete “wings” it became more dynamic. The juxtaposition of the rough hard concrete with the smooth organic texture of the cedar is one of the main features of this sculpture. The distribution of the weight with the heavier parts of the concrete on the top adds the visual imbalance. As with all my sculpture, coming up with a name became an exercise in whimsy. The piece is 16” tall by 6” by 10”.

This is my second concrete and cedar sculpture. Working upside down, inside out, and backwards is hard. Concrete molds are a negative of the finished piece. I used regular 4000 PSI concrete. No colorant. I like the idea of not trying to disguise the nature of the concrete. One of the things I like about concrete is its plasticity while casting and setting. The juxtaposition of the plasticity when working with it as opposed to the absolute rigidity of it when it cures appeals to me. The contrast between the the warm quality of the cedar and the hard coldness of the concrete is why I call it Mirror Mirror. It is 4 inches thick by 14 inches long by 16 inches tall. The concrete makes the piece quite heavy.

This is my first piece using concrete. I have been thinking about concrete as a sculptural medium for some time. It was the perfect medium for this sculpture. This is the first piece in a series. It is 25” tall by 8” deep by 5” wide. It is made of 4000psi concrete, cedar and 3/16” thick steel plate.

This is a piece that had many starts and restarts. It started out as a large abstract plant and with the addition of the “seed pod” it changed. I looked at many seed pods and thought I would add something like fiddlehead ferns to it. When the seed pod with the fiddlehead ferns was attached to the stalk, it looked like some kind of strange beast. Hence the name Florasaurus. Half plant (flora) half dinosaur (saurus). The piece is 5 feet tall by about 3 feet deep by 3 feet wide.

This is my newest project/sculpture.  I am calling it Mountain Seed Pod.  This is it under construction.  You will notice the complete lack of the actual seed pod so far.  I am working on it and it’s stem. It is made predominantly of rebar.  There will be other materials as I continue fleshing the sculpture out.

A hundred thousand years ago satellite plants thrived in what would become the American Great Plains. These plants, shaped like inverted mushrooms, were ubiquitous. Huge herds of mastodons that roamed the plains fed on them and dispersed the seeds throughout North America.

These seeds grew into satellite dishes. There were no satellites so there was nothing for them to do. As the mastodons died out so did the satellite plants until they were very rare. Then the British discovered a use for them in WWII as radar transmitters and receivers.

Now through the miracle of modern genetics a much smaller version of these incredible plants was made possible. Dishes have once again become ubiquitous on our homes throughout the world. This sculpture is a homage to these hardy plants. (If you believe this, I have a bridge for sale, Cheap!),

This is a clock commissioned by Donna Livengood as a wedding gift for her grandson and bride.  It is done in the style of Greene & Greene.

We were searching the web for women sculptors and learned of Lee Bontecou. Her works were one of the inspirations for Red Vortex. After we finished the rebar circles and their connections, we saw the work of Eric Gushee. We got the steel wire connectors from his work and the rusted steel panels from Lee Bontecou. We considered a number of finishes for the rebar. Red enamel paint covered with Penatrol for durability was the final choice. The panels are rusted steel roofing also coated with Penatrol to preserve the rusty patina. It is designed to be hung rather than supported by a base, because bases are really difficult to integrate into a sculpture. This gives it the additional dimension of motion. It was made as a 95^th birthday gift for my mother, Donna Livengood. Happy Birthday. Hope your birds enjoy this. It is 32” x 32” x 18”.

Finally, Ascent Cathedral is completed. 5 coats of rub on varnish, 4 layers of glass for the base. Spiffy. The glass base was Susan’s idea. The cedar and stacked glass sculpture is 10” wide by 11” long by 27” high. The name is derived from the “flying buttresses” at the base (ala Chartres Cathedral). This is one of a series. I am not sure how many pieces will be in the series. So far there are two. The other is Ascent NightWing.

I started out with the idea of the Ascent series as being dyptics.  As I worked on 2 of them, they exerted an individuality that separated them at birth.  This an another sculpture in the Ascent series. I call it Ascent NightWing due to the black wing-like projection. The black wing is made of recycled oak flooring. The rest of the sculpture is made of cedar, baltic plywood, and 1/4” plate glass.  The piece is 13″ wide by 15″ long by 37″ tall.