Pebble I

I recently completed the next work in a series using reclaimed bicycle chain:

Pebble I, 12" x 12" x 7"

Pebble I detail

Art Film

Usually when I hear someone say "Oh, you should see this, its an ART FILM" I turn and run in the other direction -- I only have so many heartbeats in this life and I really don't like spending any of them confused or frightened, which usually happens to me at things like Sundance showings.

The following are films ABOUT art that I've found really inspiring in the last year or so, and thought you might too.


Herb & Dorothy

This is a documentary about this couple who collects art in New York, and not just any art.  They've found incredibly influential artists like Sol LeWitt, Chuck Close, and Roy Lichtenstein before they were 'discovered' by the mainstream.  Since then they've donated 2,500 of their collected works to museums in all 50 states.  Oh, and they collected all of this work on a postman and librarian's salary.


Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Tonybee Tiles

This is another documentary about these guys who find mysterious tile-like graffiti around their city and decide to investigate its message and author, Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine style.  It's a fun look into how folks can be joyous and rewarded in the midst of their freakish obsessions.


It Might Get Loud

Ok, so this film is also a documentary, and its not exactly about visual art but music (if that concerns you, having navigated here to hear about purely visual art, then go finish re-organizing your dictionary collection and leave the rest of us be).  Jack White, Jimmy Page, and the Edge are all featured and examined in light of their different approaches to the same instrument: the guitar.  The part that sold me was the opening scene where Jack White (rapscallion that he is) makes one out of a coke bottle and nails and stuff.  Upcycling/found art at its best:

(also check out the great film on A Tribe Called Quest if you like this kind of thing)

Barbie

I just finished 'Barbie', a shell of welded bicycle chain inspired both by the book "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" and an inane talking Barbie head found at the local thrift store.

Remnant II completed

Remnant II  is the sculpture I just completed for New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc-- it was constructed during the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake at their booth in the convention center ('booth is a relative term -- NB had a two story space with in the convention center that spanned 50' x 60', and it wasn't even the largest there.  The OR show is nuts.)

In the beginning . . . 

Remnants

The challenge was to use remnants from the shoe manufacturing process (ie, the swiss-cheese-like leftovers of fabric and leather after the shoe parts were cut out) to make a sculpture that could be assembled during the convention as a visual and performance art piece. The visual language of the sculpture needed to reflect several values that drive their process: simplicity, craftsmanship, and performance.  The remnants were from the New Balance domestic manufacturing plant in Maine, and I used steel and fixtures that were milled and distributed in US.

Fixture detail

I welded together a structure that would support the remnants as they were stretched across it; primarily I was interested in how much material and in what configurations a surface would form.  Usually we think of surfaces and planes as solid spans of material like a sheet of plywood or concrete sidewalk, but I was curious to see how little material could be used to imply a continuous surface.  Many of these planes were three-dimensional as well; not a single piece of the welded metal beams was straight and as a result the spans of fabric were twisted and bent from two dimensions into three.  It was interesting to find out through talking with several shoe designers that the same process applies when they are fabricating footwear -- it begins with a planar, flat piece of material that is then stretched and coaxed into the decidedly three-dimensional form of a foot-like object.

The remnants needed to be guarded from over zealous garbage collectors . . .

New Balance Excellent Makers

Osian Batyka-Williams, another nutty Maker

I'm working with New Balance to design and make a sculpture incorporating remnants from the shoe manufacturing process (think swiss cheese-like pieces of cloth, leather, and the synthetics used when manufacturing shoes) as part of their Excellent Makers campaign.

New Balance is working to emphasize the craft in their products and that many of their shoes are actually made in the US, a respectable claim given that much of the competition favors sending those jobs overseas.  

Initial tack-welding of metal framework over which I'll stretch the remnants

An example of the types of remnants I'll be using from NB's manufacturing facilities in Maine and Mass.

Here are a couple of the other artists involved in the Excellent Makers project:

Osian Batyka-Williams, sculptor & designer:
http://www.osianbw.com/Product.html

Kate Gibb, printmaker
http://kategibb.blogspot.com/

Swing on by the Outdoor Retailers show in SLC this week and take a look at the sculpture-in-progress -- I'll be constructing it over the course of several days; it will be auctioned off at the end and the proceeds donated to a local non-profit.

2011 SLC Bike Collective

Every year I give 1% of my sales back to the community in some way -- I call it the 1% For The People campaign, based loosely on the 1% for the Planet championed by companies such as Patagonia.

In past years the recipients have been KRCL (2010) and Tim DeChristopher (2009), and this year I'm donating the money and time to the Salt Lake Bicycle Collective in the form of a new marquee sign.

From the SLC Bike Collective's web site:

"The mission of the Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households."

Check them out at 2312 S. West Temple in SLC; they also have locations in Ogden and Provo.

Mock up of the sign-to-be

Fatherhood Art

My best sculpture yet, although it's an on-going collaborative project:

I've been collecting some work that seems to somehow resonate with the adventure of fatherhood.  Other than that similarity between them, I'm not sure what all these pieces may say in aggregate -- perhaps it will require another few years (or decades) of collecting to find the themes they share.

A photo of my Grandfather and namesake on his ranch in Waco, TX by Michael Norman.

A print by Jonathon Baker of SLC.  jonathonbaker.blogspot.com

A block print by Kurt Gross.

Another block print I got at the SLC Gallery Roll by M. Delforto.  http://www.galleryroll.com/

Photo by Zak Elstein.

Photo by Gentry Underwood.  http://photo.gentry.io/grownups/