New aluminum piece

I realized it's been a while since my last post when it was time to go pick up my alabaster piece because the 64 ARTS Exhibition had ended! That was the subject of my last post, which made me think of the maxim: Time flies like an arrow – fruit flies like a banana. Speaking of arrows, they were the subject of several pieces of mine in school - long ago - and my newest aluminum piece revisits that symbol. In the photo above, it is up on a table where the dogs couldn't knock it over while I photographed it. When finished, it'll feature a weighted base that will enable it to stand upright without visible support. It will weigh 5 lbs. or less, but the internal weight will be about 10-12 lbs., making it quite stable. This will also be painted and abraded, like my other recent metal works.

New metal piece is finished

I decided to paint the wall piece with a red oxide primer. Then, after roughing up the surface with really coarse steel wool, I applied a final coat of clear, satin-finish enamel. As I said in a previous post, this is a test piece and I used really thin-gauge aluminum, but I feel that it is a success and a good starting point for a larger piece with heavier metal. This piece, titled "Red Wall", is 12" high by 38" long and weighs just over 3 lbs. – very light, but very rigid as well.

Ready for paint . . . umm, maybe not . . .

I finished this metal piece yesterday and am now faced with the question, "Is it done, or not?". This usually does not surface in my work, but this piece is made of such thin aluminum that the surface is somewhat distorted by some of the screws, and I also dented it in a few places during its construction. I'm either going to have to rough it up overall - a prospect I don't find too appealing, or I'll paint it and then abrade edges, screws, etc. with coarse steel wool in the manner of my piece "Armored Low Rhombo" from two or three months ago. Most likely, I'll paint it. After that is done, I'll post a final photo. Then, I've got to get back to the stones I was working on before I got the idea for this piece.

On another topic, I was pleased to receive the "Best of Show" award last evening at the "64 Arts" Exhibition at the Buchanan Center in Monmouth, IL. The winning piece was the alabaster "Sound of Ice", the same piece that won the grand award at the Galex Exhibition here in Galesburg a little over a year ago. It is shown above.

What I did on summer vacation

Seriously, there is no summer vacation - this is what I got done this weekend. Lori and I both had a rather amazing creative spurt this weekend so we hit it pretty hard. I did the limestone piece in about 2 hours and I think it's a seminal piece. It's only about
6" in it's largest dimension, but I just had to sketch this out. Already, the next iteration is forming in my mind. The aluminum piece is one I started last week, but only barely. It also represents a new technique that holds great promise. I've been looking for a way to make medium-sized pieces from aluminum and have them be light in weight, yet rigid enough to hold their shape. This is the first of that type and the structural elements do just what I expected and hoped. It is about 38" long but I think I can use this method to make structurally sound pieces two to three times this size. I used inexpensive aluminum that is quite thin because I was unsure about the outcome and didn't want to use the good stuff, but I will on the next piece. This one will probably be painted and roughed up a bit.

Working inside

We are having some new windows installed in our home so due to traffic through my outside studio, I've moved my two current stones to my inside one. This also gets me cool for a while which coincides with the hottest weather we've yet had. Another advantage is that my metal studio is right outside the stone-working area and I've got a couple of metal pieces in the works too. Above are a few photos of the most recent piece, currently known as "Solid Geometry #6". As you can see, I've started the refinement phase, to be followed soon by finishing.

Set 'em up

After today's session, I decided that Lori's suggestion to stand the piece up on end was a good one, and it is shown that way in the photos above - a nice option in work that does not feature recognizable imagery. I've found in working this stone intuitively that the pace of the work is much faster and more fluid than in following sketches. So, this has been a good breakthrough piece for me. Most of its forms are now nearing completion so that I can move into the refinement phase.

Another 2 hours today

I'm still proceeding in an intuitive way on this piece - without any kind of plan - but in looking at the photos, I can see that there are too many competing forms. Something's going to have to go. I'll probably continue with it in the current way for another day or so until all the forms are fully realized and then decide how to slim it down and make the balance a bit less static. This block was, until about 9 years ago, part of Bateman school building here in Galesburg. When the school was torn down, I harvested several pieces of limestone, not knowing what to expect. It has turned out to be a really nice stone to carve and I picked this piece out to serve as a demo stone for our open studios event over the weekend. In the photo on the right, the original quarryman's marks are still visible. I assume these were meant for proper placement at the construction site. The school was built around 1900.