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Golden Gate Bridge, Metaphors, Guns
Dec 27, 2009 — 28 comments
Preface: I recently walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. Thought: I am tired of the overused metaphor of the bridge as a connection between two things. To me, the metaphorical bridge as a link, a connection, is an oversimplification that ignores the absurd and unique structural power bridges represent. When I see a suspension bridge, I see a composition of innumerable interconnecting parts, working as one giant mechanism whose singular purpose is to resist the constant and unavoidable force actively trying to destroy it (specifically: gravity). Its entire existence defies nature; things heavier than air are not meant to be suspended in it. Its construction takes place in a constant state of difficulty: ocean floors are exposed, wind is resisted, and multiple massively heavy things dependent upon each other to remain suspended are sent into the air at separate times, before the supporting structure is fully complete.
I generally focus on the central section, between the spires, the gap-annihilating gravity resistors who, farthest from the land, anchored by the supports, meet successfully in the middle. These things are straining, struggling to remain in an unnatural place, inwardly saturated with a unifying tension, outwardly serenely beautiful and balanced.
But success is only temporary. The bridge will fail. It cannot last forever, nothing does; gravity will win, it will eventually plummet in the direction of the center of the earth. But it can be rebuilt.
Clearly I’m overthinking all of this. A bridge connects two things that would otherwise be separate. Done. The Golden Gate Bridge is an amazing structure, by the way.
Here are a couple of digital illustrations I did of guns. The second one is a 1911, which I have fired a couple of times, also an amazing piece of machinery that has lasted:
And one more shot of the GGB, just because it’s cool. It was really bizarre how the fog rolls in right through the channel, you can feel the blanket-effect of it, very surreal, and more than a little creepy.
Indian Head Installed, Leviathan
Nov 20, 2009 — 1 comment
Here is the first picture of a completed stone Indian Head, installed on the facade of a building in Akron, Ohio. The casting looks like it came out pretty well, and the architect is happy with it, so that’s a good thing. There will be 7 total castings, I will post more pictures as I get them.
-Herman Mellville, Moby Dick
I recently started reading Moby Dick (seems to be one of those books everyone should attempt at some point), the first section of which deals with the powerful and seemingly universal human desire to be as close as possible to large bodies of water. Living in Kansas – basically as far from the ocean as you can be on this continent – this is a somewhat strange concept to consider. Even this far from the liquid prize, it seems that everyone has water on their mind in some way. Anyone who moves away from this area, takes a vacation, paints a picture, whatever it is, always seems to have the sea in mind. Non-coastal populations pack cities against the banks of rivers, build houses around lakes (go to the Minneapolis area, everyone lives on a lake); their own inland ocean substitute. Beyond the obvious – transportation, irrigation, the fact that we’re 60% water, etc. – is there some latent human urge to return to our primordial home? Tom Robbins said that humans were invented by water as a means of getting from place to place. Maybe the same magnetism of city-closeness is also drawing people back toward the water that invented us.
Somewhat related, these images are from the album cover of Leviathan, Mastodon’s strangely awesome epic metal album based on Moby Dick (is there a better concept for an epic metal album?) (No.). It’s not their best album (Crack the Skye is), but the artwork is fantastic. The paintings are by Paul Romano, who has designed many of their previous albums as well. I firmly believe that these designs are worthy of being listed amongst the best of all time (click here to see the work of the person responsible for more of the greatest-album-covers-of-all-time than anyone else, Storm Thorgerson) While we’re here, check out a few of Mastodon’s other covers:
Tree, Mont St. Michel
Oct 20, 2009 — 2 comments
Here’s a photograph I took of a tree, then digitally altered. Not exactly sure what I was going for, but it’s sort of interesting. I think the fence has a sort of strange quality to it, and if you look closely at the leaves of the tree, they have an almost electron microscope-image effect.
This is Mont St-Michel, off the coast of France. Pretty much the coolest looking castle/fortress/walled city/stronghold of all time.
Balloon Animals
Oct 08, 2009
Not exactly sure how these two got themselves into such precarious positions, but they seem perfectly content, not even remotely concerned.
Frank Lloyd Wright, New Sculpture
Sep 30, 2009 — 1 comment
This is Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. It’s a really cool looking building, sort of hidden in the trees, sheltered from the road like it’s in the middle of a wilderness area. Oak Park is an interesting place, for many reasons that I will not delve into here, but especially for its almost ridiculous concentration of FLW buildings. We walked for 20 minutes and saw probably 10 homes and buildings designed by the man himself.
There are two of these figurative sculptures along the side of the house, very cool. The lines of his buildings are so different, so appealing.
I like most of his work, maybe not as something to live in myself, but the strangeness of his aesthetic is appealing in an I can’t believe he did got away with that type of way. I’ve been inside the Guggenheim (below), probably my favorite of his works, and to me one of the more impressive large-scale artworks ever.
Here is the newest clay study, Emerge.
Indian Head Medallion, Crater Lake
Sep 04, 2009 — 4 comments
Here is the completed Indian Head Medallion sculpture, to be cast into stone and put on the facade of a building in Akron, Ohio. You have to use your imagination, once it’s cast the hard lines and surface imperfections will soften. I had to simplify and rework the details so they would be sturdy in the stone. There are going to be 7 of them, roughly 20 feet off the ground, so I intentionally forced the proportions so that it will look better when viewed from below.
Here is a cool picture of Crater Lake in Oregon:
New Painting: Jughandle, Brockengespenst
Aug 28, 2009 — 3 comments
The new painting, Jughandle, is finally finished. It seemed like my mind was constantly being drawn in different directions while I was trying to work on it, so, as with everything else, it took longer than I would have liked to complete. This mountain has been a sort of constant visual presence in my life, it being the looming beast overlooking Payette Lake where my family gathers every year (we’ve actually climbed it, on a few occasions). I’ve always wanted to paint it, but I never thought anything I could come up with would stand a chance against the real thing. Obviously I am right — it can’t — but I figured giving it a shot and paying homage to a personally influential image is better than being afraid and hiding, doing nothing.
I was going for a slight sense of the brockengespenst (David Foster Wallace alludes to it in Infinite Jest, which is apparently an allusion [go here] to Gravity’s Rainbow, a book which I attempted to read but put down after 100 exhausting pages) without the shadow, or more accurately where the mountain, instead of casting the shadow, is itself the shadow.
I’ve also just started work on a cast stone medallion sculpture for the facade of a building. It’s in the embryonic stages now, once it evolves a little further I will post photos of it here.
This is a picture of two steel flange type things on the back of a truck I passed on the highway. There’s something bizarre and fantastic about the shape they formed. I want them in my yard.
Water and Light, part II
Jul 29, 2009
“He lay with his feet together and his arms at his sides like a dead king on an altar. He rocked in the swells, floating like the first germ of life adrift on the earth’s cooling seas, formless macule of plasm trapped in a vapor drop and all creation yet to come.”
—Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, pg. 430
Intuos4 Experiment Number Two
Jul 07, 2009 — 2 comments
Here’s the second attempt with my new Intuos4 Tablet, perhaps the single greatest piece of art-related equipment of all time ever. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work with it lately, but it really is amazing. I think as I get a better feel for it, I will be able to do some pretty cool stuff. Detail below.
Is That a Vacuum?, Vinino Showcase
Jul 06, 2009 — 2 comments
Walking through my neighborhood the other day, I came across this baffling scene: a vacuum cleaner tied to a utility pole/street sign. Nothing else out of the ordinary, no other visual information that might offer some sort of explanation, just what you see above. My mind couldn’t fully comprehend the greatness of this image. What led to this? Probably better left unknown. All I know is that it must be shared; now you, onward, bask in its glory.
This is a picture from the group show I had at Vinino last week. The image itself didn’t turn out that great, but the event was a good time. If you focus your powers of observation, somewhere in there you can see Man and Pear and Dive.