The first large scale sculpture of my own design, carved from basalt (a glass-like stone local to the Pacific Northwest). Pictured here on loan to the sculpture garden at Marenakos Rock Center in Issaquah, WA, where it was installed upon completion in October 2016. It stands at 8 feet 4 inches above its base of polished red granite. This sculpture has been accepted into the Gallery Without Walls 2018-2020 public art exhibition in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where it will be installed in August 2018.
Images below include a playful maquette in alabaster from the design process, a picture of the stone after my designed fabrication cuts were complete, and two perspectives of the finished sculpture. Basalt may be polished to a dark black, and I intentionally honed the surface to a lighter gray matte finish specifically for the transformation that occurs as it begins to rain and darken the stone.
My first public art commission for the City of Lake Oswego, Oregon. Themes of water and the balance of yin-yang are utilized. This site specific project has four elements consisting of two bench and dish rock pairs. Each set rests on opposite sides of the new storm water retention pond in the green space adjacent to the new maintenance center. The challenge was to create functional art that integrated naturally into the space while highlighting the function of the retention pond. The sculptures are placed off the path in such a way as to invite pedestrians to rest, stepping out of the stream into the eddy. The dish rocks highlight the function of the retention pond by filling with rain water and acting as bird baths. Close inspection rewards the viewer with bird tracks subtly etched into the dish surfaces. The design of the two bench shapes are influenced by the hexagonal shape that forms naturally when the basalt columns erupt from the earth and slowly cool. The two benches are also mirrors of each other, two halves of the same massive column. The column was cut in half, then each half was shaped, textured, and honed, while still retaining much of the natural surface.
“Wave” is a site specific commission for the Underwater Museum of Art off the coast of Santa Rosa Beach in Florida. The requirement was to create artwork using only limestone or concrete with a minimum of stainless steel. The idea is that the artwork is a scuba diving tourist attraction, as well as a structure to help coral grow. I selected Kansas Limestone Fenceposts as my medium. These were used historically as functional fence posts, but have since been cast aside and replaced with more modern fences. Large shells are visible in the limestone columns from when they were originally formed.
This temporary public art project was made for the inaugural Earth & Ocean Art Festival in Cannon Beach, OR. It’s about 60ft in diameter, and was made over two days. The driftwood center piece had a steep bend in the trunk - it took three of us flipping it end over end for a hundred yards or so to get it in place. When it was finished, the New York based Artichoke Dance Company incorporated the sculpture into an elaborate performance - the highlight of a great festival. I based the labyrinth-like sand sculpture on the moment when a drop of rain hits a body of water, and the ripples that extend outward.
