Great Basin Table installed

Great Basin Table, 17" x 41" x 21", 2012.  Steel and plywood.

I had a great trip out the Great Basin National Park to install a piece, give a couple presentations on my work, and help out with the filming of a new documentary on the Park being done by North Shore Productions.

The table was inspired by several of my experiences during my residency there; most notably the idea that there are several visual geometries acting in the Park, sometimes in cohesion and sometimes conflicting with one another.  There are human-made as well as natural and organic shapes and the interplay between them is fascinating.  This of course, is no new revelation (William Fox describes it as 'one of the oldest dichotomies in history, the tension between the organic shape of the natural world and the mathematical grid').

Great Basin Table  at the lower Park visitor center in Baker, NV

I was specifically interested in the shapes we make on the land that are unintended yet beautiful anyway, and the relationship between mathematical forms that at first glance appear as human constructs but show up outside of our influence.

The base of the table is inspired by a specific Bristlecone Pine found high on a ridge of Mt. Washington in the southern end of the Park, and the right-angled forms are placed using the Golden Ratio, a mathematical relationship that describes natural geometries ranging from the curve of the human ear to the spiral of galaxies.  The top is a rough map of Baker, NV, showing dirt roads and the irrigation pivots as seen from satellite imagery.  Baker is the closest town to Great Basin National Park and home to many of the Park employees and caretakers of the Great Basin and its travelers.

table top detail showing satellite imagery-inspired carving

Satellite image of Baker, NV

Golden Ratio

Bristlecone Pine that inspired the table base

Film crew in the sculpture studio

Filming in the Park

Hiking camera equipment up to the Bristlecone grove

Table prepped for filming

Bones

Bone II, 10" x 7" x 35"

I just completed two pieces that had been germinating since my time in the Great Basin and delivered to the 3rd Street Art Center's "Feel Free to Touch 2" exhibit in Carbondale.  They'll be on display throughout the month of June.

Bone III, 5" x 17" x 20"

Each of these was inspired by bone fragments I found while traveling the basin and range of Utah/Nevada.  To make them I used wood scraps that I also found in the area; I thought it was an important symmetry to depict the forms with materials that were also cast aside and weathering in the same context.

Model/prototype in progress with original bone inspiration

Detail of  Bone II,  with bondo-colored epoxy accents

As a side note, there are many other fantastic sculptures in the exhibit, including those of James Surls and John Doyle.

John Doyle's  Walnut Hand

2012 Gallery Roll

I had a few pieces at this year's Gallery Roll, and ran across some other great bike art as well:

The Chain Hands I finished just before the show

Eleanot Scholz, http://eleanorscholz.tumblr.com/

Jon Hanson

Megan Morgan

Chain Hands

Chain Hand I & II, 24"x6"x10", 30"x6" x 10".
bicycle chain, steel.  2012