The main reason i make welded metal sculpture and my art is because it is inspirational. I am fascinated by the idea of making something beautiful that has never been seen before. More-so of creating something that’s very unusual and interesting to look at. Even though i continue the use of a sculpture material I’m familiar with, i am always challenging my ability to improve. It’s this measurable improvement level that is also inspirational. Its inspiring to have an idea to make an artwork. I have an idea of what it might look like but until its all finished, I don’t know exactly how it will turn out. The process is inspiring when I see my vision starting to take form and i feel a sense of control in that its becoming what i want to see. Its a gamble too because sometimes when you spend hours upon hours sculpting a work of art and it may turn out undesirable. Its really inspiring to Finnish a sculpture. After all the ideas and effort are done i can reflect on how successful the piece is. I get to think about how much I’ve progressed in my skill and what i have learned. Sharing the artwork with the world and seeing people get inspired from its presence is also very inspiring. The whole process is inspirational and If i can pass on that inspiration in one way or another i think I’ve made this world a better place to live in. Since 1992 i have been sculpting welded recycled metals to create figure sculpture. I often passed up the bicycle sprocket when welding the metals together because of its pronounced patterns. Bike gears always seemed to stand out like a sore thumb when mixed into a bunch of other parts. It wasn't until i was confident enough with my direct metal skill-set that i decided to use nothing but the sprockets. that way there would be a uniformity to the overall look and a cohesive integrity to the material parts i was using. The first all bicycle sprocket welded metal sculpture i attempted was of a small horse. Using my usual direct metal welding technique I was able to heat, bend, form, cut and weld the gears in a way that worked. Since then i have launched off on a whole series of small and large welded metal sculptures using exclusively up-cycled bicycle sprockets. Its sort of like Picasso's blue period but its not depressing or blue. Maybe ile paint my next bicycle sprocket sculpture blue and call it Picasso's dream. Direct metal sculpting is a sculpting process that requires hands on manipulation of metal that directly effects a sculpture form. It involves a combination of different welding, cutting, heating, forming and grinding techniques that create direct results in the sculptures outcome.
Direct metal sculpting is not the lost wax bronze casting sculpture process. In this process the artists create a sculpture usually in clay or wax and then hands it off to a foundry for it to be cast in metal. It is not the assemblage sculpting technique either. This process relies on other means and materials other than welding and metals to create sculptural forms. Welded metals can sometimes be used in this process but it more often strays away from metal to achieve its results. I usually just work from a printed image when sculpting a figure but sometimes i spend the time to sculpt in clay first. I do this if i think i need more of a 3 dimensional reference. This clay is water based ciln fire clay unfired. If i want to reuse it i just throw it in water and let it get soft again. I prefer to use oil based plastalene clay. This sculpture i titled "Where's my dog?" if you squint your eyes and look at the image on the left you might find the dog. I use different methods for sculpting my large faces. This one process uses an armature or understructure to build a form over. This sculpting technique requires the use of an original form to work on. Most of the time I will have to build the underlying armature first. this form will be modeled to reflect the appearance of the mold that’s sculpted over it. In other words the sculpture i build over the top of the original form will look almost exactly like the original.
Once i have the original all welded together i can then start making a duplicate. In this case here i constructed a 10 ft tall mild steel fece from rusted scrap metal. I then laid the face down facing up and proceeded to weld a stainless steel duplicate over the top of it. I clamped the metal to the original to follow its form tightly and welded it together piece by piece. When it was complete i built a stainless steel frame for the duplicate sculpture to be supported by. Here you can see the original displayed in a NY. Gallery and the stainless steel sculpture duplicate that was made from it. Sorry for the blurry image of the rusted one. For sculpting the large faces I have found that i can sculpt the likeness in clay first. I can then transfer that image to metal. Its a very crude way to transfer an image but it works. you can’t always find the model your looking for so to sculpt it in clay the way you want works well. I sculpt the clay face on a scale of one inch equals one foot. So an 8 inch tall clay face can be built into an 8ft. tall steel face. the face is then sliced vertically. these 1 inch thick slices are placed down on a square grid and the contour is traced. The same is done horizontally. after i have all my contour lines drawn on a grid I draw another grid with 1 ft squares. Then i transfer by eye the 1 inch contour drawings to the 1 ft. graph. I then start laying out and bending 1/4” metal bar to conform to the contour drawings. After all the contour drawings are made in steel bar i weld them together where the horizontal and vertical bars cross and vualla, instant large grid face. Now that i have a rough idea of where the surface is soppesed to lay i can start applying material and making it a solid structure.
This welded steel recycled bicycle sprocket bust sculpture was exhibited at Oakwilde Ranch and Sculpture in 2015. It is titled "Gears Of Thought" and it won best in show that year. Here is that years page, http://oakwilderanchsculpture.com/?page_id=142 Off their website.
This image shows the indoor gallery. The grounds are 50 acres and display many other permanent and traveling artworks. the sculpture park is in Valley Springs California. |
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