Nearly Finished Building

As I near the end of the building time for my sabbatical, I have pieces of sculptures and bike parts all over the studio. In a couple weeks I will start to glaze and fire the ceramic elements of the sculptures and clean the bike parts more thoroughly (somehow they all have clay on them now). After firing, glazing and clean-up the ceramic and metal and plastic parts can finally be put together. 

standing sculpture in progress

base and top for standing bike-part sculptures

I counted up my work a few days ago and, I believe, once pieces have been put together I will have about 7 or 8 standing pieces that incorporate more than a few mechanical parts each. It is a bit difficult to count up my pieces at this point because several pieces could be combined with various bike parts in different combinations. It is also a bit difficult, at this point, to decide what I still need to make, as I haven't entirely determined which ceramic bases will eventually be connected with which bike parts and which ceramic tops. Regardless of what I make this week, I expect to have at least 6 or 7 coherent multi-part standing bike pieces. I may also have some random unattached parts that don't make the cut.

standing bike-part sculpture in progress

standing bike-part sculpture in progress

Besides the larger bike part pieces I've been forming during my sabbatical this fall, I probably made 12 to 15 smaller pieces this summer. Some of the smaller pieces will be part of my wall installation, others may be free-standing sculptures. Most of the small pieces also have bike parts that will be added after glazing and firing.

small wall piece with two bike parts

attachment to small piece (above)

I've had a few conversations over the past few days with Mary Dryburgh who runs the Esvelt Gallery at Columbia Basin Community College, where I will have my show, Biomorph, in January. She has asked for 15 pieces, including my two wall installations. I plan to show a mix of pieces from my sabbatical and earlier pieces that do not incorporate mechanical elements. 

"Minimidori Kuraa" (non-mechanical sculpture)

"Kekino" at Larson Gallery

Both wall installations will have mostly non-mechanical elements and a few pieces with mechanical parts. I like the idea of transitioning in the show between mechanical and non-mechanical pieces, all of which are related to each other visually and conceptually. One wall installation will be much like the installations at the Yakima River Diaries show in Ellensburg and at the From the Ground Up show at Larson Gallery. This installation will be irregular in form and will incorporate 15 to 30 individual forms of varying shape and size.

bulb installation from 2002

bulbs for one of the wall installations

The second installation is a re-envisioning of a much older installation I first created in 2002. This installation is a wall of 100 bulbs, all roughly the same size. The bulbs are cast from a mold, then decorated on their surface with various additions, both mechanical and organic, made from clay sprigs or added after firing. The bulb form derives from the shape of a flower bulb or closed blossom. It is also a shape used by the Laura Ahola-Young, the painter who will be sharing the gallery with me in Pasco.

bulb with bolts

bulbs with mechanical part sprigs