Black Armored Structure

This piece got finished yesterday, and its first exposure will be in a December group exhibition in the ICON Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa.
It is aluminum and steel, mounted on pine and is 26" x 8.5" x 4". As I said to a friend, this is probably going to be a difficult piece for most viewers - as in, "What can I say about it?" No need to say anything, really, just tell me whether you like it or not. It is a piece that I feel is exploring the leading (bleeding?) edge of my aesthetic and deals with my struggle with the concerns of 3D art in a post-minimalist milieu. Even a title for a piece like this is difficult. Does it say to much? Too little? Should the piece have a baseor sit directly on the surface? On this last issue, I decided that since the scale of the piece is not such that it can rest directly on the floor, some kind of base was a necessity.

New metal piece

This is an aluminum piece that is about 3/4 done. I've got a few pieces to add to the exterior and some structural work inside to make it easier to mount on a base. My plan is to paint it flat black and then rough up the surface with abrasives in the manner of my other recent aluminum sculpture. This is the first piece that I'll finish since finding out that I'll be participating in a 2-person show at a nearby art center, the Buchanan in Monmouth. The other artist will be Josh Bindewald, a recent MFA graduate of Bradley University. This is a really nice opportunity for me since I have so much respect for the quality of Josh's prints and paintings. The show will run mid-February to mid-March of 2012.