Mixed Media Sculpture
Cape Moonrise (left) and Cape Sunrise (right) - yellow onyx (moon), honeycomb calcite (sun) with welded iron.
When I visit Plymouth, MA, I love waking up to watch sunrise, and simultaneously moonrise when there is a waning crescent moon. The rising sun has beauty, power, and grandeur, which I feel is captured in the translucent orange calcite, especially when the sun illuminates this piece. My good friend, James Kitchen, generously allowed me to use his welding studio, and I incorporated the various gears and other metal elements to represent the complexity of what goes on beneath the water's surface, normally not visible to us.
I especially love when the waning crescent moon is visible at sunrise, particularly when Venus is close by in the sky. I used yellow onyx to sculpt the crescent moon. This stone's more subtle coloration represents that the moon presents itself by reflected light.
Celestial Dreams at sunrise (above) and pre-sunrise with the rising crescent moon and Venus (right).
Celestial Dreams - steel, copper, brass, furnace glass
When teaching drawing I used some books by Betty Edwards. One of her books, Drawing From The Heart describes a method of thinking about some of your artistic and life inspirations, and freely drawing your impressions on a blank piece of paper. I started thinking about our home in Plymouth, the sea, the stars, the sun and moon. These were all represented in the sketch I made.
Next, I was scheduled for a welding class with Norman Ed at Snow Farm. The course description indicated that other materials besides steel could be incorporated into the sculpture. So, creating my Celestial Dreams sculpture became my project for the week. The top portion has the girl in the form of a crescent moon with stars and a comet in her hair. This portion is kinetic. The lower portion incorporates a gently curving form, with steel spirals that incase brass and copper rings, some of which are filled with colored furnace glass.
Elemental - orange onyx, flame worked glass, iron, copper
Continuing the theme of using antique wheels in combination with colorful stone, I created an abstract design working around the crescent shaped stone. I chose to use curved pieces of iron as well as various small round pieces of metal to complement the shape of the stone. I used a brake drum as the base, and added some lengths of copper in a circular pattern. Finally, I created some glass buttons to complement the vivid hues of thjs stone.
Ring of Color
Antique sewing machine mechanism, flame worked glass, marble (white Greek marble, French campan marble, Moroccan fossil marble.
This kinetic sculpture presents a good opportunity to combine a well balanced sewing machine mechanism with colorful glass marbles, and three different marble stones.