Prepping wood from trees

This is a log from a cottonwood cut several years ago.  I did nothing to it except let it sit, and you can see the cracks that resulted.  For some pieces it may be desirable to let it crack deliberately and use this pattern, but structurally it is compromised and would have to have a supporting base or framework so it doesn't fall apart.

Until recently I've used wood that's been milled (or more commonly, already used) before I got to it.  I've been waiting for a chance to try starting with the tree rather than the pre-cut planks at a wood supply house.  When a neighbor told me he was going to remove a giant apricot tree from his property, I jumped at the chance to try it.

Two of the greatest woodworkers of all time, George Nakashima's and Sam Maloof were experts at this.  Take a look at Nakashima's use of the live edge and butterfly insets in his work.

The original tree, marked with sections that I have sculpture ideas for.  I was inspired partly by a visit to James Surles'  studio in Carbondale (www.jamessurles.com)

Newly cut wood ('green' wood) is heavy because of all the water weight.  Slow, consistent drying is key to reducing the number of cracks and structural abnormalities.  Many sculptors either use a large kiln to dry wood or keep a rotating stock ready for use.  For air-drying, a good rule of thumb is 1 year per inch of thickness . . . so for large pieces the planning process can start a decade or more before the sculpting even starts.

Cookies chainsawed and ready for sealant

Drying cookies prepped with different sealants as an experiment

Cracks that showed up on an untreated log a day after cutting

Sealant added to the ends of cuts to slow the moisture loss.  Eventually I'll cut strips out of the bark to allow for more even drying (and fewer cracks).

Pause Play Planters

I just finished a set of planters, now the search begins for the right plants to put in them.  I liked the idea of using the ubiquitous Play/FFW/RW symbols to fit with the overall shape of the curving metal.

Shipping Art

I've recently been moving art around the country and thought it would be good to explain a bit about how I get it from my studio to its new home, specifically for other sculptors and art collectors who have to get their stuff from here to there.  

Lets start by talking about crating and packaging sculpture for someone else to transport.  There are a ton of great tutorials on the web about how to do this for paintings -- sculpture follows the same principles with a few modifications.  Ideally we'd have a team of white-gloved butlers that could hand-carry valuable artwork to its destination, but the reality is that unless you drive it yourself, it will be handled by a bunch of busy folks driving forklifts and 18 wheelers who don't know if there's a set of Ming dynasty vases in their cargo or American Apparel t-shirts.  

Given that we need to protect our artwork, I actually enjoy the process of making the crates that my work travels in -- it is part of the theater of owning, releasing, and accepting artwork in to our lives.  Just like those suitcases from the 30's covered in travel stickers and the warehouse scene at the end of Indiana Jones, a good crate can tell part of a story.

If you'd like, many shipping companies will pick up and crate your work for you.  Give your local respected gallery a call and see who they use.  This is a more expensive option, but saves time especially if you have a whole suite of work to send to a show or an enthusiastic collector.  Some will require they package the work for you to be able to get insurance on it (get the insurance.  Trust me.), and some will tell you their requirements then inspect your packaging when you bring it to them.

A good package will protect against several dangers:

Gross impacts (getting dropped, stuff dropped on it, bumps from other packages and trucks with little suspension).  If you have especially delicate work (glass art, ceramics, etc), check that the trucks used have air-ride suspension.  I use 2" foam on the inside of my crates as well. A box-within-a-box, separated by packing peanuts or something similar will work too.

plywood panels with insulation prepared for the crate sides

Abrasion (from the work shifting inside the crate as well as other things rubbing against the crate during transport).  I fix my work to the crate itself, although this may not be appropriate for some media where shocks will crack or dismantle your work.  The table in this example is made from 3/8" steel plate, so I'm not worried about shocks as much.  I use a thin foam padding and plastic packaging wrap to protect the finish.

Table affixed to the bottom of the crate to prevent shifting/abrasion against the inside

 Punctures. These usually come from forklifts and pallet jacks used to move the crates on and off loading docks and trucks.  Generally speaking, if your work + crate is more than 100lbs or unweildy size-wise, fix it to a pallet so that the skids can slide underneath easily.  This is the damage I've heard most about from other artists and the reason why I don't like using cardboard boxes for my work.  I also make handles using climbing webbing and washers so that it is easier to carry by hand and to folks moving it are less temped to shove a pallet jack underneath.

 

Handles to ease transport

 Moisture.  Generally it will come from two directions -- above (rain, stuff above it breaking) and below (spills, wet/snowy dock floors).  The plastic wrap mentioned above helps, although it is important to leave some cracks in the plastic wrap so that you don't get condensation as your work changes temperature/altitude in its travels.  A good shipping company will protect it from rain, and I build the crate on a slight rise so that if it does get set in a puddle nothing gets wet but the bottom of the crate.

Skids to keep the crate off the ground/away from moisture

Getting lost.  Stuff gets misplaced, even with the official labels that get put on it.  I always include my full address/telephone/email as well as the recipient's on a sheet inside the crate.  In addition, a bunch of 'UP' and 'Fragile' stencils (just make sure you don't put them on backwards  . . .) make the crate more recognizable and generally cool-looking.

 

CSU MFA exhibit

Got the chance to see CSU's Master of Fine Arts Thesis exhibit a few days ago. If you're in the N Colorado/ Ft Collins area, I recommend checking it out.

There was one artist in particular I especially liked: Eli Marco Hall, who did a video series that depicted his use of typography on various public spaces. He use shadows on walls, rocks, even firearm pock marks in concrete to illustrate several personally relevant phrases ('you're not me', 'cancer consumed her', etc). The best part wasn't the design of the typeface or the sayings themselves, but the theater of their production and disintegration caught on time-lapse film. Seeing the film in the gallery gave me a perspective that I wouldn't have gotten if I saw the work in person, or even it's construction real-time.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take photos in the gallery so you'll have to see it in person.

Carbondale's Art aRound Town

Just got back from Carbondale, CO to install the Ambiguous Family in Carbondale's Art aRound Town exhibit.  It'll be there for a year at 3rd & Main, so swing by and check it out.

I also had the opportunity to meet and trade secrets with some very talented sculptors who were also in the exhibit:

Casey Cooper
(article)

Casey and a few buddies from Texas drove this thing up and over Colorado mountain passes in a marathon trip to get it out to the show, and it was one of my favorite pieces.  He welds sheet metal together and then inflates it using compressed air to give his sculptures a very interesting industrial/organic feel.  The scale of this particular one was especially impressive as was the light and shadows that play across the surface depending on the time of day.

Michael Dunton
(website)

Michael is out of Castle Valley and does some very painstaking and beautiful work with illuminated stone and steel.

Shohini Ghosh
(website)





Suzanne Kane
(website)






Michael Lindsey
(fb) (website)

Gary Mitchell
(article)

Kevin Schaffer (detail)

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