My newest piece is Baltic plywood, stacked glass and steel. The stacked glass and base have not been attached yet. The stacked glass I like, the base, I’m still thinking about. I can’t attach the glass permanently until the base is attached. Sculpture, what a pain. The order it’s assembled in makes a huge difference.
Its finished. I’ve got say I really like this one. It went through a number of design stages like most of my work and this is where it finished.
I once watched this documentary about Georgia O’Keeffe (actually, I watched it a great number of times). In it she is being interviewed by this person who wants to gain great insight into her working process. She asks O’Keeffe how she knows when a painting is finished. O’Keeffe looks her right in the eye with an absolutely straight face says, “I start in the lower left hand corner and when I get to the upper right hand corner I know I am done.” The interviewer looks at her and says “Oh…”. Not a clue. I thought I would fall out of my chair.
So, when anyone asks how I know when one of my pieces is done, I’ll look them in the eye and say with an absolutely straight face, “I start in the lower left hand corner and when I get to the upper right hand corner I know I am done.”. If its good enough for Georgia O’Keeffe, its good enough for me.
Gregg’s working on another clock. Plywood surround, stacked glass and layered stainless steel. The funny angle is because I wasn’t willing to climb a ladder to get a good composition.
Well, I finally finished it. Its about 5 feet tall, 39 inches wide and 22 inches deep. It made out of cedar, 1/4 inch glass, sheet steel and rebar. I don’t know it exact weight, but some where under 100 pounds. The cedar was donated by Sarah Burris, and the glass was donated by Blue Ridge Glass of Waynesville. The rebar and sheet steel I bought. Funds for the project were provided by the Haywood County Arts Council through the Regional Artist Project Grant.
I have found that working on several pieces at once works for me. If I get stuck on one piece and work on another until I over come my design problems on the first piece. Here is my next stacked glass piece. Here is the finished piece.
Well, the left side design phase is done. The right has gone through many different ideas. Here is the first 3D trial. There will be a slightly less than half circle of steel attached to a cedar left side with 1/4 inch glass fins attached to the steel on both sides. Not the best photo, but…
OK. The left side is looking pretty good. Now, how to display it. I wanted it to be about five feet tall. I liked the circle in interation 4, but it needed something to increase its height. The picture below was taken in my welding yard. You can see the beginnings of the right side of the sculpture also.
This is the next idea I explored for the dyptic. I liked it. The glass ,however, is just stacked in the cedar, not yet glued. When I tried to move it to glue it, it didn’t stay together. I had to restack and glue the glass.