Livengood Studio

This is my newest public outdoor sculpture. I call it Seed Pod. It is 120 inches tall and 30 inches in diameter. It is made rebar, steel pipe, ¼ inch hardware cloth and zip ties. It was inspired by a small steel pendent.

That led to two large curved wooden pieces which I dyed red. The sculpture was going to be called Tango. The 2 red curved wood pieces were going to be inside of a curved moon shaped crescent, with the dyed wood pieces placed back to back. I laid out several iterations of this, but none worked. The pod outer shape followed the crescent shape as a progression. It spins on a center axis with a gentle push.

Satellite Seeds has now been installed at Haywood Community College in the Rhododendron Garden. I would like to thank Hylah Birenbaum, Executive Director of College Advancement (Foundation), for including my work on the HCC Art Trail. I consider it a great honor for my sculpture to be displayed along with the other Western North Carolina artists.

This is my second public art piece. My first public piece, Amaranth, is on display at the Haywood Senior Center.

Susan has been rearranging the gallery. She thought a good grouping of my clock sculptures should be called a “Clock Forest”.

I heard a noise this afternoon in my garden. When I went outside to see what it was, I found these creatures. I didn’t recognize the species. I took a photo and looked it up online. AI informed me it was a Heffalump and calf. “A Heffalump?”, I asked.  “Yes”, AI said with a sniff, “A Heffalump and calf.”  AI, right.

I believe public art is important. Many people never go to an art museum or art gallery. Public art is the only art they see other than in books or on TV. Satellite Seeds (see attached) is off to it’s new home. It will be installed soon at Haywood Community College on their walking trail through the campus. The sculpture was separated into two pieces for transport.

Other local sculptors have pieces displayed on campus.

This a sculpture in response to the new censorship we are seeing in our public libraries. It reminds me of films I have seen of the Nazi book burning of the late 1930’s. It’s not that big a jump from banning books to burning books. The title makes reference to Ray Bradbury book about burning books titled Fahrenheit 451, which is the burning point of paper. You can set a book on fire with a match. A steel book takes an ox-acetylene torch. Take that book burners.

It is a gift to a friend who is a retired educator.

This is a sculpture I have been working on for over a year. The story is about Ikarus, the son of Daedalus. Daedalus was the designer of the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. The king, as kings do, wanted the secret of the Labyrinth, to you know, remain secret. So…  Daedalus had to take the secret to his grave. Daedalus didn’t want to die, so he built two sets of wings, one for him and one for Ikarus. They were attached to their shoulders with wax, of all things. Daedalus told Ikarus not to fly too close to the sun. As we all know, Ikarus was filled with hubris, and when he flew too high, the wax melted, and good bye Ikarus.

What no one knows is that Daedalus had built wings before. When Ikarus was very young, Daedalus built a tricycle with wings as a third birthday present.  So, the sculpture is called “Happy Third Birthday Ikarus, Love Daedalus”. Well, that’s the end of this shaggy dog story.

The wings are cedar and steel, and the trike is steel with plastic wheels.

I have been working on the idea of a sculpture of Icarus for several years. I built one abstract sculpture that almost worked. It sat in my welding yard for about 18 months. I finally took it apart two weeks ago. Here is one of the new wings. The working title is “Happy 3rd Birthday, Icarus, From Daedalus.” At this point, both of the wings will be mounted on a really old tricycle. The wing is made of cedar and steel, 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall.

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”.