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Artist in Residence
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JUNE JOURNAL
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Wednesday, June 7, 2006
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Hello and welcome to my studio. Ok, it’s a garage. We moved to this area west of Madison in March, and hopefully during the course of this project, this space will begin to look more like a studio. I have been out of school for about 13 years now, and have had “studios” in better and worse places than this – from spare bedrooms to basements, old airplane hangers to light industrial spaces. I have learned that it is not the place, it is what you do with it. Let’s take a tour.
We have bikes, lawnmowers, the obligatory spare sofa, some past projects, and in the back, my workspace. You can see unpacked studio boxes, some power tools, my trusty 13-year-old budget welder that I hope to upgrade soon, and the steel layout table where I do most of my work. |
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Here is something new, approximately 500 pounds of bronze rod that I will use to build the Paine commission. I typically make my work from welded mild steel, so this will be something new technically and formally. |
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This is a small piece I am working on now which will be completed before I start in on the Paine project. A small piece like this, measuring only 26” high can take anywhere from three to six weeks to make. What’s nice about looking at this piece is that it is very much in keeping with how I will fabricate the piece for the Paine. You can see the to-scale drawing behind the structure. This is where I start, describing the form, the scale, how it will be finished, and what kind of ornamentation or structure it will employ. After establishing the drawing I will work directly from it, bending vertical members by hand on the drawing. This piece has 24 vertical lines describing the form. They are welded in place on circles bent to the correct diameter of the foot and top lip of the form. Then I begin to add the horizontal lines.
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Because I want a smooth continuous skin to describe the form, I bend circular pieces of wire that are marked and cut into small segments. In a small piece like this, made from thick steel wire, I cut these parts with a bolt cutter. For the Paine piece, I will need to use a chop saw. I weld these pieces in bit by bit to create the horizontal lines. For this piece, I will end up cutting and welding in about 864 bits. It is slow, but I like the repetition. I like the idea that I can build something complex through a simple process. After completing the welded form, the welded joints will be ground and sanded down to make a smooth skin.
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The inspiration for this small piece came from our front yard. I am always looking at forms and structures in nature and I find it to be endlessly inspiring. We have some pear trees that are producing young fruit. I loved the bulbous shapes and the persistent reminder in nature of beginnings and endings. |
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
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This week I have been working on this small piece for an upcoming exhibition. It will be similar in process to how the Paine commission will be fabricated, but much smaller. |
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Once the structure is complete with all the horizontal segments welded in place, I weld all the joints from the inside. |
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The piece, now been roughly ground or sanded on the outside, is now being fitted for the decorative elements that will be welded into the frame. |
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This image shows how I cut areas of the steel grid out and welded in leaf-shaped elements. |
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After the piece was again ground with a disk grinder to eliminate weld joints on the outside, I finished the form by welding on a foot, or bottom to the vessel. |
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Here is the piece with the added foot and a finely ground surface. |
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These small parts were fabricated from fine steel wire and soldered together with silver solder rather than being welded together. The soldering process, the same as what is used in jewelry making, allows me to create finer joints and seams than welding can on very small objects. |
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The piece with the small soldered pear-shaped elements in place. |
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006
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After finishing the structure of the piece, grinding it smooth, and filing all rough edges, it is ready to be colored. Larger pieces I have professionally painted, but I do small pieces myself by first coloring, or oxidizing the metal, and then sealing the surface with a moisture-resistant final coat. |
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In most of my work, other materials complete the skeletal structures. I like to combine steel with materials with rich connotations, both personal and cultural. For this piece, I am weaving horsehair into the leaf and fruit-like forms. |
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There is a long history of the use of woven human hair for intimate, personal objects. These are two examples of Victorian era mourning jewelry woven from the hair of the deceased. |
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Horsehair is thick and easy to weave. I used to purchase the hair from rendering plants, and would then have to wash and comb the hair. I now order it from companies that provide hair for use in musical instruments. I use simple metal hooks to help weave the hair, and anchor it in place with masking tape until the weaving is complete. |
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This process is pleasant, but very time consuming. Each leaf form took about an hour and a half to two hours to complete. |
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A detail of the work in progress. |
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The finished piece. |
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Continue to July Journal |
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