Exocubic Studio

Moved!

2009-10-04T06:13:00.000-06:00

Hey! How did you get here? I've moved over to Tumblr.

Ahhh... Thats more like it.

2009-09-28T14:02:00.002-06:00

My Workspace, originally uploaded by mark leichliter.

I finally got fed up with the fan noise, the clutter, and the general lack of wonderful that was my old desktop Windows system. Opted to indulge my inner minimalist and went for a 17" MacBook Pro. I really like this setup, plus I have a Bootcamped Windows XP partition that runs SolidWorks and Rhino beautifully. To top it off, I was able to sell the whole system to a friend in dire need of an upgrade - shiny, happy people and shiny, happy computers all around.

Bookmobile - Installed

2009-08-04T10:25:00.003-06:00

Back from a quick whirlwind trip to Little Rock, AR in the rain. Got the Bookmobile piece installed - everyone was happy with the way it turned out. This one was a little weird in that I had no way of seeing what the finished work would look like until it was on site and finished - just not enough space to do a dry run beforehand. The Rowlux plastic really makes it all work.

Robert Leigh Leichliter 1/11/1941-7/17/2009

2009-07-17T13:16:00.000-06:00

Mermaid: Done.

2009-07-08T11:45:00.002-06:00

You can check out the whole process of making her here

On Her Way

2009-06-26T07:33:00.002-06:00

We loaded up the mermaid and sent her on her way to Norfolk - complete with TV coverage.

Metal Mermaid

2009-06-21T12:19:00.001-06:00

OK, the mermaid is pretty much done - I have a couple more hours of texturing and touching-up, but I've got all day tomorrow. We put her on a truck for Norfolk on Tuesday. Here are a few shots showing the assembly process. (Descriptions are UNDER each pic.)

The flat pieces, cut according to the pattern I posted earlier. Cut with a laser from 14 gauge stainless steel.

Beginning the process of sorting out who goes where - these are parts of the tail fin. You can see the leading and trailing edges up front and the side faces in the background. I use the neighboring pieces as bending guides; as the edges are drawn together, it forces the planar sheets to curve into the proper shape.

The tail tacked together.

Her hair being assembled. You can see some of the printed out guides from Rhino that I use to keep myself somewhat less confused.

The face was, ahem, a real bitch to get to fit properly. I should have broken that center strip up into at least 3 parts - this would have saved about 3 hours of bending and tweaking due to the tight curves in opposite directions lying right next to each other. I printed out a profile section at 1:1 scale from Rhino to use as a guide. Do you get the idea that I love that program?

Parts being finish welded.

One arm is assembled and chased, with another underway. This is about when I remembered fully just how hard 304 stainless really is. There is carbon in there, and it precipitates into the Heat Affected Zone around and in each weld - making it just that much harder right where you need to grind. Weee.

The other arm roughly finished and the start of the main portion of the tail.

Attaching the face to the hair - with both mostly chased out. This was the last of the small parts to get done before moving on to assembling the tail/body and hooking them all together.

Putting the structural member in. I designed the structure keeping in mind two factors: the fountain construction docs called for a 6" sleeve to receive the sculpture, and aesthetics. I used 5" standard pipe to slide down into that 6" sleeve, plus the thick pipe looks less like a lollypop. Structural engineers in Norfolk analyzed my design and found it adequate without any changes to account for all the forces in play on the piece - that means I done goodz.

Torso panels going on.

Attaching the first arm - I was able to spin the pipe on the table in order to work on both left and right halves. My back thanks me. At this point, the size of this thing in comparison to the garage is becoming really evident.

John Kinkade of the Guild and Mike Allison helped me stand her upright. I built a shipping stand for her so she can ride upright on the truck out to Norfolk - I like to avoid having the piece in contact with the flatbed when possible to minimize the risk of denting the (relatively) thin sheet metal. I also prefer not to attempt to cover the sculptures - the coverings tend to do more harm than good.

Yours truly doing some final chasing on the parts I couldn't get at in the garageshopstudio.

Got a sunrise shot of her the next day. Basically done but for some final texturing and nitpicking.

This was a huge project for me - not in terms of size, but time. Start to finish in just about a month is pretty much unheard of. I wasn't sure if I could do it. 10 hour days for 30 straight days will do it, I guess. That and lots of beer and the support of a really awesome woman.

And some great friends.

And a good portion of too stupid to know better.

Bizzy. Backsun.

2009-06-07T18:07:00.015-06:00

I've been out in the shop (studio? - either way, it's just the freaking garage) bending and welding sheets of stainless steel into the shape of a mermaid - for 18 straight days.

Why the hell would you want to do that, Mark?

The City of Norfolk, Virginia contacted the Guild looking to have their iconic mermaid logo sculpted into three dimensions. Ren put together a package of potential artists, and, long story short, they chose me. The single greatest criterion for this choice was most likely the simple fact that the fabrication method I use permits a much faster design-to-finished-sculpture time frame. Ya see, Norfolk first contacted us at the tail end of April - with an unveiling date of July 2nd. That pretty much rules out anything cast - and should rule out any kind of sculpture at all, unless crazy people happen to be involved - ooh, look at the grouse!

I spent a couple weeks in May coming up with two designs for them to choose from, both based on their original logo.

The first idea was simpler from a fabrication standpoint. It consisted of a series of plates bolted together.

This concept was nixed - probably a bit too industrial. I loved it, most likely because I'd be done with it already.
Time was so tight Ren put her considerable drafting skills to work on the second design while I doofused around in Solidworks on the first one. Here's what she came up with:

Hmmm. Who's the artist on this project?
Showing perfectly sensible good taste, the City chose Ren's design.
(Time for dinner. More later.)

So, now it's time to figure out HOW to make it. I struggled for just long enough to realize that Solidworks is just not the right tool for such a task. Nor would any of the other tools in my toolbox be fast and accurate enough (in my hands at least) to build the complex surfaces needed for the mermaid. FormZ? I'd have thrown my computer out the window after half an hour. I realized that an old friend was going to be required - hey Rhino, how ya doin'? Before I lost my marbles and abandoned the Windows world for a Mac, Rhino was the program that first enabled me to make the switch from carving stone to computer sculpting. I was amazed at how it all came back to me - I was able to jump right back in almost as if the last 5 years hadn't intervened.

Nonetheless, I was still too inept to just start building developable surfaces that looked like the mermaid in Rhino. I needed something to start from - so I modeled the rough form in Modo.

It was pretty easy to flesh out the shape I wanted - that sort of work is the bread and butter of polygonal modelers like Modo. Plus, it exports formats that Rhino has no problems translating. Here's the mesh out of Modo with the beginnings of surfaces (the tail) that will eventually be the sheet metal of the mermaid.

Some more progress:

And the finished model:

From here, it's time to unroll all those surfaces so that they can be used as a pattern to drive the laser cutter. My Rhino rustiness let me make a few problematic surfaces - they were curved in two directions, which is pretty damn hard to persuade 14 gauge stainless steel sheet to do. Happily, Rhino also includes tools to compensate for this - actually, Rhino seems to be one of those programs that allows you to do pretty much anything you can think of; the tools are there if you just dig deep enough.
Anyway here's what the unfolded parts look like:

And here's the final design, all gussied up for its trip to Italy:

(No, it's not REALLY Italy - just a cheesy computer render)
I'll post more when I get some time.

Birthday!

2009-05-01T18:21:00.002-06:00

As near as we can decipher, today Lola is three years old. Congratulations on surviving your sketchy childhood, your trying adolescence, and the rules of your monkeys.

I just realized that this photo contains my three favorite things - Ren, Lola, and Beer. Sweet.

Postbarf.

2009-04-15T13:53:00.004-06:00

In an effort to make up for a dearth of posts, here's a whole bunch of crap vomited into the tubes all at once.

Book mobile design for a school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here's another angle:

Once again when I'm desperate for cash, my friend Bruce comes through. I spent quite a bit of time working with him to get a usable unfolded pattern made for his buffalo piece. Looking forward to seeing it finished one of these days.

Have some good clients down in Santa Fe who are looking to find a way to bring some durability to the omnipresent ristra. (They are having problems with the wind, mice and ants destroying the traditional ones.) This was my first concept, which fails on the wind-resistance front. Presently working on iteration number two.

Net Operating Loss - A simple How-to

2009-04-15T12:45:00.003-06:00

Finished up my taxes after much trepidation and procrastination. The final tally: a Net Operating Loss - which means I lost money in 2008 and don't owe the IRS a cent. Yippee? For the curious, here's a simple diagram that explains how to achieve such a feat:

Translation: Just agree to enlarge your job by 50% without a commensurate increase in compensation - or, just be a frickin' idiot.
That is all.

Retrace your steps.

2009-01-18T09:25:00.002-07:00

I've been spinning in place a bit. On a whim, I tried dipping into Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies for a little inpiration, and the message was "Retrace your steps." I wandered back through the timeline of my experiences as an artist, and arrived at the time when I had first fallen in love with the computer as a creative tool. I was using my Apple Macintosh LC, and had installed a program called "Canvas" that had an unbelievable set of both vector and pixel tools. I remember the clean, infinitely-tweakable lines (command-Z, how I love thee!) that I could use to make drawings. I wish I'd managed to save some of that stuff so we could have a good laugh.

Anyway, like any proper geek, I have a dual-boot system with Vista and Ubuntu. Part of my inertia has been related to frustration with the constant pull of new and newly-upgraded software, especially the heaps of cash involved. Thus the appeal of Ubuntu - and of Inkscape thereon. Inkscape is, IMO, the best Open Source software available. I own a license of Adobe Illustrator, and DREAD opening that bloated behemoth - Inkscape doesn't have the depth of tools, but that's the point. It is a streamlined Illustrator driven by the needs of the user rather than the need of a corporation to sell licenses and upgrades. Another contrast comes from my involvement in 3d modeling - it just starts to feel like the means are so involved that the ends often seem off in the foggy distance. Vector drawing brings the immediacy of making marks on paper to the computer, while still allowing amazing control over the process.

Here's what I did in Inkscape:

More SolidWorks designs.

2008-12-15T10:31:00.003-07:00

Entryway for a skateboard park with walls for donor plaques.

Stainless steel "awning" designed to emphasize the cast shadow.

Skinning the bases.

2008-11-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Ren helped me install the second layer of 12 gauge sheets to the bases. In the lovely "November in Colorado" wind - a 30 mph gust can sure make 150 pounds feel like 300. Yippee! Drilled and placed over 200 rivets over the course of three days.

Bitching aside, it's that much closer to being done.

Water and Power - installed.

2008-10-09T14:50:00.004-06:00

The Water and Power sculptures are (finally!) in their rightful places. I was a little too busy to get any good action shots, but I'll see if I can't find some and post 'em. In the meantime, check out my flickr photostream for more.

These things are really, really big. And blue. And yellow.

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

2008-09-30T17:55:00.004-06:00

Here's a peek into what has me so excited about Solidworks:

This is what the model looks like as you're working on it. Shadows, perspective, depth cues, surface textures - wow. And that's just the display. This is what I was working with before:

That may not seem like a major deal, but in practice every little nuance that improves your interaction with the virtual model means less eye strain, better comprehension, and fewer errors.

The geometry you see in the first picture is an honest-to-reality depiction of the sheet metal, folded up and mated together with allowances for overlap and k-factor built right in. Previously, the 3d models I made were paper-thin approximations that required me to grind the metal down to compensate for the lack of thickness. That may again sound like no big deal - but the last one of these I fabbed ended up with a nearly 1 inch gap between the first and last tetrahedrons, all because of the thickness of the metal multiplied by the number of parts (.063 inches X 12 parts =.756 inches).

Pictures are indeed worth lots of inane rambling:

In the last image you can see that the one remaining tetra will not be enough to complete the loop.

Now, imagine if I were making this thing 16 feet tall - that little error becomes a very big problem. Pulling a little gap together in the small one becomes warping and ruining the piece on the big one.

Going back to Windows with an aching in my heart.

2008-09-28T13:46:00.004-06:00

I'm typing this entry in Microsoft OneNote on my new Vista-based workstation.

WHAT?! The Apple fanboy has joined the enemy? Turncoat!

Yep.

The single biggest reason I have for doing so is software-related. If you remember back to this post, I was having enormous difficulties getting my modeling software to properly create the geometry I needed for the Water & Power project. Much of that difficulty was a result of what the software developers call "training issues" - a kind euphemism for operator error. Those errors were a direct result of me trying to shoehorn general-purpose modeling into a very specific, sheet metal and structural steel framework. After several additional weeks of cussing and learning, I THOUGHT I had resolved my issues and developed usable 2d patterns from my 3d models. A few weeks later, I came to find out (the hard way) that I was mistaken - some cut lines had been omitted from the pattern, which entailed reworking the patterns all the way from their 3d state for those particular shapes. I was able to do so and then generate some cutting templates with the help of the big printers at Kinko's, but the whole error resulted in a pretty expensive change order at the fabricator. Not to mention the stress and the added work for me.

I realized at that point that if I wanted to continue to push myself and my designs via CAD, I was going to have to find a toolset and workflow that would minimize these kinds of errors. My trust in the current set of software tools I was utilizing had been undermined and the need for something new was self-evident.

Solidworks to the rescue.

I got an evaluation license and set up a Bootcamped Windows XP partition on my Macbook Pro. I did all the included tutorials, watched a few hours of demo videos on Youtube and elsewhere. WOW. Solidworks can do everything I was contorting myself to do in my previous packages (yes, plural) all in one unified workspace - and it can do it with an elegance and sheer power that blows me away. The most significant aspect is the History, which allows you to make changes to existing designs while automatically updating said design to compensate for the change. For example, say I decide to change the material for a sculpture from 16 gauge A36 steel sheet to 14 gauge 304 stainless steel. All that is needed is to tell the sheet metal feature in the feature tree that fact, and all the bend allowances, offsets, etc. are updated on the fly. In addition, any drawings that have been produced (again, right inside Solidworks) are immediately updated to reflect the change. That last bit is HUGE, since the downstream manufacturers rely on these drawings to fab the design. With my previous system, I would have to manually make any necessary changes to the 3d model, re-develop the patterns, export the patterns to my drawing program, and annotate the revisions there. Each of these steps introduces the possibility of mistakes - both mine and import/export related ones. Eliminating them means eliminating a big percentage of the errors that result in expensive change orders. Sweet. Now, mind you, all this power comes at a steep price - but one that can pretty quickly be compensated for in error-free projects.

OK, so, if I'm able to run it on my mac laptop, why a new computer? Unfortunately, the makers of Solidworks, Dassault Systemes, do not offer support for running it on macs. It makes zero sense to invest several thousand dollars on a software package only to run it on a cobbled-together system that precludes you from technical support in the advent of problems. Plus, Solidworks is a very hardware-intensive package, and a serious desktop workstation allows one to use it to fullest advantage.

Moving from OS X to Windows Vista is a pretty jarring experience - mostly in terms of attitude toward the user. Maybe it is just general familiarity, but Apple seems to have crafted a user environment that leaves less to bewilderment and officiousness. Not a day goes by on Vista where I'm not wondering what the hell that dialog box means or why that error occurred - something that, in all seriousness, almost never happened on the mac. I understand the why behind this - Apple does not have the legacy overhead for both software and hardware that Microsoft has to deal with, and of course the sheer number and variety of users forces Bill and Ballmer and Co's hand. But I personally would pay extra to MS to have a simplified, less paranoid version of Windows to run Solidworks on. Here's hoping Windows 7 is a step in that direction.

I'll miss you, little Macbook.

Water & Power - the end is near.

2008-09-25T17:13:00.004-06:00

I intended to follow up on my previous post with a little info about my new computer and new software, but forming and pouring 30 cubic yards of concrete sorta stifles the urge to make blogginess. I've been having a blast, despite working my ass off, due mainly to getting a chance to work with my big brother Scott again. Couldn't have done this one without him.

Thanks dude.

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

2008-09-07T07:25:00.005-06:00

Thing are under construction around here. I'll post a more detailed explanation of what's going on soon - but for now, suffice it to say that I'm moving back to Blogger and using it as my main web portal. I was able to consolidate all my old Emptyful posts into this new Exocubic Studio blog using Google's Blogger in Draft mode, which allows importing and exporting whole blogs. So if you haven't had a chance to look at the old stuff, there are actually some pretty interesting posts from way back. Here are a couple:

Making a Monument
Moldmaking

Talk about coming around full circle:
Evolution

...and Power is, uh, Yellow?

2008-09-02T16:13:00.004-06:00

Pre-School Wisdom: Water is Blue

2008-08-11T15:34:00.002-06:00

Symbol Sconces

2008-08-08T15:21:00.005-06:00

I’ve made some candle holders that mount on the wall (uhh - you hang ‘em on a nail). They are made of 14 gauge stainless steel with a sanded matte finish. You can put one or two tea lights on the little shelf that is sandwiched between the plates.

Here’s a diagram that shows how they are constructed:

And a truly professional night shot, with a lit candle:

Exocubic Studio Store now open!

2008-08-06T11:02:00.000-06:00

Notice that new link up there (on the right)? Yep, I’ve opened an ecommerce storefront where some of my smaller works can be purchased. Go check it out!

"Water" being sandblasted.

2008-08-06T10:47:00.001-06:00

TD manufacturing in Greeley, Colorado prepping the “Water” piece for powder coating. Lloyd from Master Metal Works and I ran out to look it over and correct any flaws (I point out, Lloyd corrects). The metal looks really good. I’m excited that this project is finally starting to coalesce.

And so is Pas de Deux.

2008-07-16T15:37:00.001-06:00

Meme is finished.

2008-07-05T10:25:00.001-06:00

Jafe Parsons got some preliminary shots to me this weekend of the finished "Meme" sculpture. Really, really pleased with this one. I think it is my best work to date - if that statement actually means anything. I oftentimes feel that my latest effort is my best; it takes a bit of time and perspective to get a true sense of how a single work fits into an oeuvre. Yet this does feel like a less tentative, bolder statement of form that is derived intrinsically and exclusively from my current process - the computer as primary tool for sculptural expression.

What I'm doing right now.

2008-05-26T11:05:00.003-06:00

Assembling the "Meme" piece.

Number Six.

2008-05-18T09:39:00.002-06:00

Back from Little Rock, Arkansas having installed my sixth major piece of public art. None of these installations comes off without a hitch, but it seemed like this one was actually easier than some of the others - perhaps indicating that John* and I are actually learning? Personally, I was able to relax a bit more, which in turn allowed me to communicate better with our crane operator and everyone helping us. The elderly crane owner was there (in addition to the operator) and his expertise made a huge impact - but he was very soft-spoken and had the thickest Arkansas accent I'd yet encountered. It took a conscious effort on my part to pause and really talk things over with him in order to comprehend what he was advising. I think I've finally gotten mature enough to shut off the ego and do what's needed to achieve the goal. About time. Also, the Little Rock Parks and Rec guys were there to help us out, and they REALLY did. The strongest lesson I came away with was that we collectively are much more capable and wise than any of us is singularly.

* - John Kinkade, the Executive Director of the National Sculptors' Guild and my dear friend of 16 years. (That's him on the far right above.)

More pictures here.

Candleholder.

2008-04-18T08:31:00.003-06:00

I've been working on some ideas for more utilitarian designs - if you can call a candleholder useful. The first image is the sheet metal shapes as modeled in FormZ.

And here is the first prototype in 14 gauge stainless.

This is (kinda) what it looks like with a tea light candle inside. I made a little platform that sits inside that will hopefully make the thing a little safer - the top of the enclosure does get pretty hot, but one of the unique properties of stainless steel is it's low thermal conductivity compared to other metals. The top gets hot but the sides stay cool.

The whole point of this piece is the pattern generated by the flickering light traveling through the holes, but my low-light camera skills is be real goodz - I could show you the pretty black rectangle I made, but... yeah.

Environmental responsibility and the artist.

2008-04-15T10:38:00.003-06:00

This picture, of Antony Gormley's "Waste Man" burning - filling the air with the noxious smoke of tons of discarded wood - set me thinking. Uh oh.

I understand that part of the point of this piece was to call attention to the massive amounts of waste we in the developed world produce, and to highlight the ephemeral essence of all the "stuff" we strive so hard to acquire. Gormley is one of my favorite sculptors - but this kind of condescending spectacle has definitely lowered his esteem in my eyes. Why exacerbate the very problems you are hoping to solve?

This brings up a point that bugs me no end regarding my own choice of method and material: how to reconcile the obvious environmental crisis-in-progress and my part in it with my (and our culture's) need to create and express. Is Gormley's monstrous cloud of smoke any worse in the end than the unseen multiple such clouds emanating from the iron mine, the steel mill, the tractor-trailer delivering the raw material for MY sculptures? Finding a point of equilibrium that allows one to be in the world without accelerating it's destruction is probably the most profound and important question we all must ask ourselves as we venture into a new millennium.

What do you think?

Meme.

2008-03-16T17:33:00.002-06:00

This idea - or at least the seed of it - has been floating around inside my mind's eye for quite a while. I finally have the tools to make it a reality, which I find pretty damn exciting. It is meant as a symbolic treatment of Richard Dawkins' "meme" concept:

"A meme (pronounced /miːm/) consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a "culture" in a manner similar to the behavior of a virus. As a unit of cultural evolution, a meme in some ways resembles a gene." (From the Wikipedia article.)

It's that "propagate" bit that this piece plays on in the form of a concentric ripple - an idea moving from mind to mind like a wave, spreading out from it's origin and altering the energy state of other ideas within the culture. It also employs the imagery of a matrix or lattice to illustrate the memeplex being made up of individual, discrete consciousnesses experiencing a collective and individual transformation through the propagation. I think of this process when I analyze the slow but steady progress our species is making from one cultural paradigm to the next, as ideas like liberty, responsibility, and reason spread virally and replace those of dominance, exploitation, and superstition. As more minds begin to cohere, constructive interference amplifies these waves - and everything gets just a little bit better.

Gary Gygax : 1938-2008

2008-03-04T17:55:00.000-07:00

I am in a state of stunned disbelief. A bit of news has crept up on me from the vast buzzing of the interwebs. This news is arcane and oddball, like so much of the info soup out there, but it has seeped inside me and found some long-forgotten place of joy and excitement - and killed it. Gary Gygax, the mastermind behind Dungeons and Dragons, has died. Geekboy enough for ya? Well, it gets worse. I not only spent countless hours playing D&D - I did it by myself. I was both Dungeon Master and Players. I designed vast worlds and complicated labyrinths, drawing up countless maps on graph paper and populating them with creatures both good and evil. I then rolled up character after character to explore these lands and live these stories - those games are still some of the strongest and most engaging memories I have from my youth. But it wasn't all just play. Profound lessons can be learned when you play god and mortal both. Characters I had nurtured for months could be slain by one bad roll, and I was the one with the power to change that outcome. But there in the Dungeon Master's Guide, Gary Gygax had written more than just the instructions for how to play the game - there was a tone to the underlying scheme that encouraged the rational analysis of ethics. I feel that D&D, like all great fiction - especially fantasy and science fiction - is a metaphor, a sign pointing the way to truths that are beyond the storyline. So much important learning and interaction is scoffed at by the mainstream because it is couched in the "uncool". So simple a thing for a man to do as to invent a game - but that game can hold the key to a deeper understanding of life itself. A belated, unheard, and ultimately useless:
Thank You, Gary.

Pas de Deux (Hello, Captain Cliche)

2008-03-02T17:48:00.002-07:00

I've finally had some time to break away from the Water & Power project. What do I do with the time? Design more sculptures, of course. OCD, anyone? I need to update my How? section to reflect the new tools I've been using - I've moved away from SketchUp and into fromZ for modeling. FormZ is a much more powerful tool, but it's burdened with a commensurate bump in complexity. I still spend more time wondering what the hell is going on rather than feeling confident in the necessary procedure to do what I need. This confusion has actually been a subtle prod to more creativity - playing without understanding can bring you back to the "Beginner's Mind" that breeds newness and breaks habits.

I just couldn't shake the impression of one form aiding the other to float overhead - like two ballet dancers in a pas de deux. This was rendered in Maxwell - I'm a rank amateur, so am excited about the potential quality renders looming on the horizon.

First Post for February. On the 29th.

2008-02-29T10:21:00.003-07:00

Good thing it's a leap year. I'm amazed, as I normally feel like Feb is the longest, nastiest, darkest, most miserable month of the year - and it went by so fast, I barely noticed it.

More progress.

2008-01-25T13:38:00.002-07:00

Making good progress now. The base portion has an extra layer of steel sheet attached to it - to set off the main sculptural form visually, and to allow for easy replacement in the event of damage. I drilled all the holes in the 3d model so their locations will be built right in to the cut sheet metal, plus it makes for easier documentation for the fabricators. (You can't really make out the holes in this image, but there are 20 holes in the face we're looking at here. Each penetrates through the outer gray layer, the yellow layer, and into the structural steel.)

Getting there...

2008-01-22T13:17:00.002-07:00

I'm finally getting the virtual model of the Water & Power project squared away. Pictured above are the structural steel components that will hopefully hold the sculpture upright in the Colorado wind.

Current Mood: Wack.

2008-01-16T17:13:00.001-07:00

I am slowly, inexorably being driven insane. How can something as simple as a truncated, oblong pyramid be so damn hard to model? Oh, sure, it could be the .001 tolerance I'm dealing with or the fact that everything is -just- a few degrees off the cartesian planes - or even the fact that I'm just too goddamn picky - but how many days are acceptably wasted in the interest of just offsetting one virtual 12 gauge sheet the thickness of another?

Control Freak, Let Go!

2008-01-08T06:28:00.003-07:00

Making art is a very personal process that oftentimes borders on mental masturbation. Maybe that's why I like it so much >grin<.

Creativity can be seen as a dialog you are having with yourself, with the dialectic centering around finding balance between your own skills and the qualia of the medium your dealing with. For me, there is a fine line between craftsmanship and fussiness - perfection is an idea, not a reality. If your work is exclusively about dotting i.'s and crossing t.'s, expressing nothing more than "look how good I am", then it's appeal to an audience that is not you becomes pretty limited. Striding the razor's edge between craft and expression can be seen as the fundamental struggle of artistic endeavor. I have learned to trust my eyes and my hands to produce that which I see in my mind's eye - but I've also payed a price physically while developing that trust. Both wrists and my right shoulder are permanently damaged from pushing just a little harder to get that piece done. Growing older and becoming more involved in large Public art projects have forced me to outsource the fabrication of the bigger sculptures, with a commensurate loss of control. I'm still learning how to make this new process work.

The above pictured piece, "Together", was fabricated by Master Metal Works here in Fort Collins. They've done a good job - but not as good as I would have done. That's the crux of the issue: surrendering just enough control to get the work done without sacrificing the overall quality of the sculpture.

The Meaning of Professional.

2007-12-03T12:23:00.001-07:00

I finally had the motivation to get professional photos of some of my recent small pieces. Happily, I happen to know a guy who is both a brilliant photographer and interested in my work - enough to want to work a trade. As I was importing the fruits of his labors into my computer, I realized that each and every image was beautiful. Thanks, Jafe.

Take a look:

High Road or Low?

2007-11-14T12:59:00.001-07:00

I'm currently reading "Mind Wide Open" by Steven Johnson (his most known work is "Everything Bad is Good for You"). It's subtitled "Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life". In it he cites the work of researcher Joseph LeDoux, who has found that the experience of danger actually follows two distinct pathways in the brain - one conscious and rational, the other unconscious and intuitive. The second pathway, dubbed the "Low Road", ends at the amygdala, which basically specializes in emotional response. This bifurcation is why you will find yourself suddenly frozen in place when you glimpse a very snake-like branch on the trail, before your cortex is able to analyze the much more high-resolution signal it receives and conclude that it's not a threat. It's very much a matter of bandwidth - the amygdala gets a very low-res version very quickly, while the cortex signal is slower but richer in content. Other studies show that our ability to apprehend the emotional states of others is handled much better by this brain sub-system as well - your immediate, intuitive reaction to someone's facial expression is much more accurate than the one settled on through your cortical deliberations. First thought, best thought.

This made me wonder if a person's predilection toward more sketchy, painterly artworks isn't somehow tied to this neurological phenomenon - we tend to think of it as a "gut reaction", but could it be that this is a function of the way our brains work? It's interesting to note that as we grow more knowledgeable about art, we tend to value works that embody a more spontaneous, less fussy visual style. Is this because we learn to trust our amygdala and depend less on our cerebral cortex - and it's greater complexity? To me, the whole purpose of art is to convey something universal about an individual, internal emotional state - what better part of the brain to utilize than the one that specializes in emotion?

Who's the dummy now?

2007-11-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

"It was a fun experience, as I haven't done any smaller works like this, where client interaction is taking place just like on the bigger projects."

Is this the most poorly constructed sentence EVAR, or what? Sheesh. Sure, I could go back and just edit the post, but then all my fans would think I'm this perfect, god-like being who never fucks up - and we all know how boring that would be, don't we?

Mmmmm. Leftovers.

2007-11-08T13:06:00.002-07:00

I did a small commission for a woman who was heading up her own real estate group - "Blue Moon". It was a fun experience, as I haven't done any smaller works like this, where client interaction is taking place just like on the bigger projects. We played around with different designs until finding something we both liked. This is what we arrived at.

What does this have to do with leftovers? The Blue Moon piece included a crescent of silicon bronze, which my laser guys don't keep in stock - I had to buy a full 2 ft. by 10 ft. piece. Needless to say, I had a lot of leftover material. (A-Ha!) I've always really loved the volumes and shapes of horses, so I thought I'd just quickly model something up - a horse head - to use up that bronze sheet. It was mostly just a lark, I didn't really intend to come up with anything too special - but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

There is an area of discoloration that occurs adjacent to each weld, called the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ), that can include gorgeous reds, blues, and purples - I've always loved that stuff. On this piece, I decided to just let it be, to not cave in and grind the welds back or do anything else to obscure them. Bronze is 95% copper, which is highly reactive to environmental acids and chemicals, so you have to seal it somehow in order to keep it from changing colors. Clear powder coat to the rescue.

Messing with a new theme.

2007-11-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've been goofing around with some new themes in RapidWeaver. I really dig this one - it's by Elixir Graphics and called "Origami". Seems kinda apropos, with all the metal folding and stuff. Oh, yeah - to the three people on the planet who actually visit my site, I'm sorry for the lack of new posts. Hopefully I'll have the time to work up something interesting. At some point. Maybe.

Got It!

2007-07-13T16:46:00.001-06:00

Just received word that the Loveland Visual Arts Commission chose me for the Water & Power project. So very, very psyched. We are scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss a few design changes. Speaking of which, here are some pics of the models:

There are more over on my Flickr account, including renderings of the site.

So Hot... Must... finish.

2007-07-06T10:50:00.001-06:00

Been working on maquettes for a project I'm a finalist for. It's been in the upper 90s - perfect weather for bundling up in thick leather and melting metal. Time to separate the men from the... other... men... who are smart enough to come in from the heat.

Even f*ckups can be pretty cool...

2007-06-13T17:57:00.001-06:00

After struggling for days - literally - trying to get a computer site model ready for a proposal, I finally figured out what needed to happen. It sucks when the best course of action is either to half-ass the job or spend money on YET ANOTHER piece of software. So far my experience has been that it's much more difficult to do professional work with hobbyists tools (so, yeah, I bought the damn software). Now I'm gearing up for my first exposure to Rapid Prototyping. I think I'm just about ready to send files out for quotes. I rewarded myself with a bike ride and some goofing off with my camera.

This sculpture has been at this stage for a few months now. The guys at the laser cutting shop must have a had a tough time getting the cut parts out of the stock, as the metal shows quite a few dings and gouges from their efforts. I should have rejected the parts, but they were stacked together so I couldn't really inspect them properly. It turns out that my unfolding on this was erroneous, and the fabrication was a huge pain in the ass - you wouldn't think it would be big deal, but each of the faces you see is actually supposed to have a diagonal bend across each one. Just 1/64 of an inch out of planarity, and the design almost didn't work. Lots of clamping, prying and cursing to get the edges to line up even near appropriately. I need to decide if I want to cover up those dings and gouges by grinding them out and powder coating it an opaque color, or if I want the process to be transparent to the viewer by just using a clear coat. Hmmmmmm.

Masking Tape and Stuff - Rune Olsen

2007-06-05T07:50:00.002-06:00

"In my sculptures I transform powerful images into sculptures that interweave personal narrative, with social issues. Made from newspaper and tape, which I refer to as “social materials,” everybody can equally access these materials; I cover each sculpture in expressive and abstract graphite markings. The contrast between the methodical binding of materials and the abruptness of the mark making suggests physicality as sensual and destructive. The intimacy of the figures’ interaction is agitated by the presence of the viewer. I am interested in how the viewer relates to the sculptures as either participant or voyeur. With this juxtaposition, I seek to reveal the corporeal and mental boundaries of desire."

Fixed!

2007-06-05T07:28:00.000-06:00

Ok, RealMac Software has released an update to Rapidweaver. Looks like they got everything fixed.

Technical Difficulties

2007-06-03T12:18:00.000-06:00

Please excuse the ugly, barely-legible nav bar up there - the software I use to do this website, Rapidweaver, has been updated to version 3.6, which isn't quite ready for prime time. Hopefully they'll get things sorted shortly.

New Dining Table

2007-05-25T10:36:00.001-06:00

Finally got around to building Ren and me a new table. It's steel with a gray hammertone powder coat and cherry plywood top. The legs are removable. Turned out pretty nice. Toot. (That's the sound of me tooting my own horn.)

Update on the Veterans Memorial

2007-05-25T09:30:00.001-06:00

Haven't had the time or the motivation to blog of late. BooHoo. The semi-latest news is that we were able to repair the damage on the marble ball and get the whole project wrapped up in time for some punk-ass kids to use the walls for ramps for their bikes. Damaged them pretty badly. Once again, though, the City of Paramount stepped up and repaired them - doing a fantastic job in the process.

The Best Laid Plans...

2007-02-25T09:39:00.001-07:00

Well, made it home from an installation gone awry in Paramount, California. We arrived on site early on Tuesday morning to find the "Upholding" sculpture broken. Our truck driver had done everything he could to try to minimize the damage after he spotted it happening, but things still got pretty messed up. I probably shouldn't get into details at this point due to legal and insurance issues, but suffice it to say that mistakes were made. Everyone at the City of Paramount involved in this project was on the ball and very professional in helping us get through this, and I'd like to say a big "Thank you" to them now. They managed to rent a TiG welder and I was able to reposition and re-weld the plates back into place. The marble ball was bruised and chipped, but should be repairable (we are already scheduled to fly back out in March to finish things up). In addition, a couple of the concrete wall sections shifted on the trailer, resulting in a big chip right near one of the plaques. The pre-cast company did send along a patch kit, so we were able to get most of the damage repaired - but more attention is needed. John and I put in a long, hard, frustrating 12 hour day, but we were able to get all 7 wall pieces and the sculpture itself placed. Not too bad, I guess. (Click here for more pics.)

Children Must Play

2007-02-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

I can't help it... sometimes I just gotta goof around. So I thought maybe it might be fun to share some of the silly stuff I make. Check out adoodadaday. (Edit: I took down that blog. Just wasn't able to update it properly. Sorry about that.)

Moldmaking

2007-02-09T13:09:00.002-07:00

This series of pictures shows how a mold is pulled from a clay original in order to begin the casting process via lost wax. I painted a LOT of rubber and tossed THOUSANDS of pounds of plaster back then. Dan Ostermiller was a good guy to work for - he knew how to have fun and didn't take himself too seriously back then. His career took off like crazy at about this time, and he had some problems adjusting, like any guy in his thirties who suddenly had people clamoring to buy his work would. More complete descriptions can be found here.

Welding Bronze for Ostermiller

2007-02-09T12:31:00.001-07:00

Hmmm. I found this image, with a date on the back, which contradicts my guess for the date on the previous post's pic. This was taken in March of 1989 - I was working for Dan Ostermiller at that time, doing point-ups (enlarging small sculptures into biguns) and welding them together. The location is at the old Loveland Sculpture Works building. That's Nancy, Dan, Tim Cherry, me, and Kevin Fitchner, along with a few thousand pounds of cast bronze critters. Kevin was the first welding teacher I had - he was also a dairy farmer, and would get up every day at 4 am, milk his cows, come to the shop for a day of welding and grinding, then return home to milk a second time. He averaged about 5 hours of sleep a night. Needless to say, he quit working for Dan shortly after this picture was taken, and I took up the job of managing Dan's production.

The Tropism piece from the previous post was done when I worked for Kent Ullberg, which was after working for Dan. So 1990 is more accurate for a date on that pic.

First Commission

2007-02-08T16:06:00.001-07:00

I did this piece for a private party in uhh... 1989, I think. So I was 23 years old. The title of the piece is "Tropism" - it reminded me of a seedling just orienting itself to the sun after breaking out of the seed. The material is gray alabaster. I remember picking up the raw stone - it weighed about 1200 pounds, and the finished carving was 750. There was a lot of unsound material in the blank, and that influenced the design. Like most of my carved stuff, I had no predetermined concept in mind at the start, I just started wailing away with the chisel, letting the design evolve as I worked. I kind of miss that approach, but my wrists still bitch about the abuse they suffered to this day.

Blog? What blog?

2007-02-07T15:33:00.001-07:00

Oh, shit. I suck at sticking to stuff. Except making sculptures. For some reason, I just keep doing it. This year marks my 20th year of it, in fact. I made my first casting (that word almost makes me barf - it's like a shot of cheap tequila) in 1987, and went to work for Dan "The Man" Ostermiller in 1988. I've dicked around with tons of different modes of expression, but the one constant has always been sculptural form. I think I might dig out some old photos and scan them, do a sort of egomaniac's retrospective right here. Stay tuned.

Oh, and the attached pic is a fabrication shot of the "Upholding" piece for Paramount, CA. Scheduled to be installed on the 20th of this month.

Beauty: Ned Kahn

2006-12-18T08:17:00.002-07:00

It's a rare and wonderful experience for me to find an artist's work that is utterly new to me and utterly spectacular. Ned Kahn's work makes me wonder why I bother - it's just that damn good. Mmmm, humble pie. My favorite.

Cubetowers in the Median

2006-11-20T09:38:00.003-07:00

Working on some graphics illustrating the placement of my Cubetower sculptures into street medians for the City of Long Beach, California. I used generic streetscape buildings from Google's 3d Warehouse to populate a mocked-up city. Sketch-Up also lets me set the location up as Long Beach in order to accurately study shadows and sunlighting for that particular locale. I used a more unrefined line style to suggest a first-draft concept that hopefully won't influence the client too much in regard to the actual execution of the design.

Synergy Mandala

2006-11-07T17:44:00.002-07:00

After having mucked around for two months, testing different ideas and undergoing about 300 revisions, I settled on this design to present to a client for a wall sculpture.

They love it.

Interesting Dutch Furniture

2006-11-04T14:53:00.002-07:00

I'm always intrigued by the different and unique influences computer-aided design has on traditional crafts. I'm not even sure how these are made, but rest assured a computer or two was involved.

www.demakersvan.com

Haloscan test

2006-11-04T14:39:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to see if my Haloscan comments are working.

Again with the new website?

2006-11-04T10:13:00.002-07:00

Yeah, yeah. I know. Just can't leave well enough alone. Anyway, what do you think of the new digs?

New Website!

2006-06-18T09:00:00.000-06:00

After a lot of hassle, I've managed to get a new website put up. I'll probably blog over there more, with that content confined to stuff that has to do with my sculptures and other art-related posts. This space I see becoming a bit more free-form and less art oriented. Check out the new space:

www.exocubicstudio.com

Sculpture: Split Infinitive

2006-06-08T20:23:00.000-06:00

I finally got this back from the powder coater today, after they had a little QC problem and needed to recoat it. I'm really excited and pleased at how nice it turned out. The pics show it installed at Columbine Galleries' Loveland location. I love how the amazing, flaming orange interacts with the environment, especially the greenery. I think it's interesting how many people find the bold colors on these pieces to be "too much". I visualize a garden setting like this, filled with interesting forms, all decked out in pure colors. To me, it is the very essence of their alienness, their stark contrast to the subtle pallette surrounding them, that gives them a reason to be. Subtle, subdued tones on outdoor sculptures seems somehow dishonest, as though the artist is attempting to deceive the viewer into thinking some natural process created them, rather than the destructive industrial truth of the matter. I guess, in a sense, that I'm shouting at you how different you are, how removed we are as a culture, from the anachronistic, serene, normal state of the natural world as it is romanticized around us.

Relief design- Frog and Spider

2006-06-05T15:25:00.000-06:00

Sticks and Stones

2006-05-31T10:08:00.000-06:00

This is an older design that originally was done in cast bronze. I always liked it, but have grown so bored of cast sculpture that I destroyed the mold. I decided to rework it into a form suitable for fabrication, so traced the basic shapes and divided them up onto separate layers to be individually cut from steel. Now I just need to earn enough free cash to produce a prototype.

Goodbye.

2006-05-25T18:45:00.000-06:00

Ren and I lost a friend yesterday. I don't know what else to say. Goodbye, Rory.

Oh yeah... Done!

2006-05-17T19:45:00.000-06:00

Finally finished this thing up the other day. My friends Tyler and Ren had to tell me to just stop already! with the futzing. I can't remember who said it, but one my favorite quotes about making art is: "Knowing when to start and when to stop are the most difficult parts of creating a work of art." (edited due to stupidity)

Sculpture: Revenge of the Vet's Memorial

2006-05-16T12:44:00.000-06:00

I've had what, in hindsight, was a great time reworking this Veteran's Memorial design. Something of a tennis match, with me utilizing feedback from the client (based on her understanding of the site's requirements and those of the local denizens) to revise the concept until something that suits both my needs as an artist AND those of the end audience emerges. Some people might consider this willingness to compromise the very definition of "selling out", but I firmly believe that public art should be driven by the needs of said public, not those of the Artist's Ego. Isn't it the height of arrogance for an artist to refuse to respect the wishes of the people who will have to live their day to day existence in the shadow of what he creates? Creating artwork is an inherently self-indulgent act, one that can be made more enjoyable, challenging, and egalitarian by subsuming the needs and desires of others into the mix.

Sculpture: Tetrahedral Sun

2006-05-14T11:48:00.000-06:00

I switched out some inventory with my friends Jeff and Nicole at Skol Studio. I hadn't seen this one in a while, and had forgotten how well the raw metal with the heat markings works on this particular design.

Playful Painter

2006-05-12T08:12:00.000-06:00

Mac geekery meets the canvas: Gautam Rao makes oil paintings of Mac UI elements, such as this one of the upper left corner of the Safari window. Probably crosses the border into worshipful zealotry, but who cares?

Playful Painter

Split Infinitive: Getting closer

2006-04-29T07:26:00.000-06:00

Took a break from the computer to work a bit on this thing. A few problems, but I'm pretty psyched so far.
Oh, yeah... that is, indeed, a cow you see in the background. Ren is doing a cow for the Denver Cow Parade. She's doing a Stegosaurus/Cow mashup titled "Stegobovus". That girl cracks me up ;—p

New Sculpture Proposal: Veteran's Memorial

2006-04-24T17:38:00.000-06:00

Been working on a proposal for Paramount, California. They have an existing veteran's memorial that is in need of a facelift. This is one option I've come up with. The figure is defined by negative space cut out of horizontal plates of stainless steel, with further refinement provided by the silhouette cut out of thicker, vertically oriented plates.

Yes, I'm Still Alive

2006-04-15T16:37:00.000-06:00

I've been working my ass off trying to figure out my taxes (and how to pay them), keeping my head above water financially, and working up a new piece for a veteran's memorial. Took a break (started Sketch-Upping at 6 this morning) and found Mark Haddon's work (via Drawn!)

William Steiger (thanks Aurora!)

2006-04-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

Aurora Robson stopped by and left a nice comment on my blog. I've only just begun to explore the posts on her blog (they are much more in-depth than mine), but she's already provided links to artists that rock, like:

William Steiger

Split Infinitive: Hiding the Butt Joints

2006-03-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

With temps now into the low 60's, I'm back at it. I was able to get the first major butt joint to fit up well enough that it's pretty difficult to point out. Lots of grinding and sanding were needed, as well as some inverted welding; the steel is so thin that, when brought to a molten state to fuse the parts together, it yields to the pull of gravity and tends to sink. I end up turning the piece over and welding it upside down to counteract this effect - it's better to have a slightly high spot to grind down than a divot that needs punching back out. I was also able to get a pretty clean filet around the base, so it may not require any chasing. I find that these structurally critical areas are better left unground to avoid weakening the connection. This is turning out to be my most complicated assembly to date, but also a really fun challenge.

Split Infinitive: Slow Progress

2006-03-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

Haven't been able to put much time in on this lately due to the decision by Winter to pinch-hit for Spring. Ya gotta love March in Colorado. I could fire up the wood-burning stove that sits in the corner of the shop, but even that can't pull enough of the damp chill out of the air to stifle the ache in my wrists. Cold weather, metal grinding, and arthritis make for a lovely party. Or a fine reason to stay inside and work on another design in the computer.

Split Infinitive: Makin' It Real

2006-03-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

Finally underway on the metal for this piece. You can see the printouts I use as assembly guides, color-coded to make figuring out which piece goes where a little easier. The butt joints (where the wide inside pieces meet) are going to require some extra attention to avoid ending up "kinking" at the seam; I may use ribs of sheet placed perpendicular to these faces to help them "span" cleanly into one another. I love this stuff!

Together: Proposal for Little Rock

2006-03-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

Worked up this graphic for the City of Little Rock, Arkansas. They are revisioning the area around the stone on the banks of the Arkansas River that gives the city it's name. This is a continuation of a sculpture walk that begins at the new Clinton Library and proceeds along the river, past "Le Petit Roche", wandering by a cascading fountain and children's play area. They need a focal point for the area to draw people down to the new feaures, so I thought a bright red-orange finish would be be perfect. We (myself and the National Sculptors' Guild) are just in the preliminary stages on this, but my hopes are high. My work is actually pretty hard to beat in a scale/visual impact/time-to-completion -vs- cost comparison. I think this piece would really work well given the needs of the site and the existing constraints, plus I really enjoy working with the people there. Wish me luck!

Return to "Ashes and Snow"

2006-03-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit it. Like a fine American Consumer, I got sucked in. The slickness and my desire to find meaning overwhelmed my finer esthetic senses. Something had been gnawing at me about Gregory Colbert's work, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Then I ran across this. Sometimes I guess I need someone else to think for me. Nico, thanks for the insight. I'll try not to let the smoke and mirrors beguile me so much in the future. I also had no idea that Mr. Colbert himself was the man featured in so much of the imagery, like some self-obsessed fashion model actually gifted with enough intelligence to operate a camera. Sheeesh.

In one of the comments on the above linked post, another poster points out the ecologically unsound truth of the Shigeru Ban building. Perhaps creating truly sustainable architecture is an impossibility given our current understanding of the world: even the brilliance of the Great Plains "tepee" requires the killing of animals to enable it's construction.

My apologies if you were led astray by my praise of this supposed work of art. Living and learning.

Making a Monument: Part 3

2006-02-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

After welding together the three rings and attaching the base, I began the much-hated grinding procedure. All visible weldments had to be ground down to flush, and then the entire surface was sanded with a variable-orbit sander to blend it all together. Once I had that done, it was time to stand the thing up and invite everyone I knew over for beer and pizza. I also sent out some press releases and got articles in the local alt weeklies and the Denver Post. I think it was just due to the free beer, though.

And here it is finished and installed at the Little Rock National Airport.

Making a Monument: Part 2

2006-02-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Fabrication on the bigger ones is quite similar to what I described earlier, except it requires a lot more equipment to manage the bigger components and exponentially more welding (the total linear feet of weld on this piece was something like 1300 ft.). I don't use rolls to create the curved sections, I just wrap them along the flat edge pieces and tack them as I go.

Once I have all three rings together, the hard part starts. Manipulating these big pieces into place and getting proper alignment can be a real bitch. I've gotten pretty adept at working by my self, but this is the stage at which a little assistance would have been prudent. In the end, I was able to make the whole thing without any help, and also without being killed. Pretty neat, huh?

Oh yeah. In that last shot, you can see those two main supports inside the base, which protrude upwards into the main ring when finished. These are actually 1/4 in. plate and essentially hold the whole thing up.

Making a Monument: Part 1

2006-02-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Once I've decided which design I'd like to propose, I try to create images that illustrate the scale and form in a vernacular accessible to the client. Oftentimes this necessitates stylization in order to minimize confusion as to what is "real" and what is just placed into the image to anchor the sculpture and demonstrate it's scale. This is one of the many reasons I use SketchUp, since it's native output has a nice, simplified feel. At this stage it's also necessary to write up a statement that conveys how I see the work fitting into the expressed criteria for the project, a task that sometimes proves much harder than actually fabricating the piece!

I usually try to work through the entire project in virtual space on the computer in an effort to minimize surprises, including the whole unfolding process and structural details. Depending on the scope of the work, engineering consultations are handled at this stage as well. Once I have the project pinned down (meaning a signed contract and a down payment), the structural specs are double-checked, and the actual work can begin.

On this project, the engineers called for 14 gauge steel on the two upper rings and 12 gauge for the bottom one and the base. We were able to grok a rough estimate of 1200 pounds for the whole thing, which was used to establish what sort of anchoring and basing system would be required.

Back from Cali

2006-02-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Survived a trip to Cerritos, California to restore the finish on the big Tsunami fountain. To be quite frank, we kicked it's ass. Totally refinished the entire surface of an 18 foot tall sculpture in three days. A big fat thanks to Jason and Ren for all the help. You guys rock.

This experience has me thinking about monumental sculpture. Stay tuned for a long post that outlines my process for making one of the big ones.

We also had enough free time at the end of the trip to check out the "Ashes and Snow" exhibit at Shigeru Ban's Nomadic Museum, located at the Santa Monica Pier. The building was a structure of used shipping containers and paper tubes, while the show was an installation of architecture, images, and motion. The images were by Gregory Colbert and focused on exotic animals and people juxtaposed in natural settings, all in sepia tones. Most amazing were the films, as they captured the beautiful motion of humans and animals together in surprising ways. Indiginous people and endangered animals of the same ecosystem, with shocking similarities in form and spirit between the two. Very zen and hard to describe.

Ashes and Snow

Split Infinitive: Done!

2006-02-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

It took a while, but I got it. Rebuilt entirely in Sketch-Up, laser path just needs arranged for minimized waste and reference dimensions. It was surprisingly easy to redo from scratch, I suppose due to my having become so intimately familiar with the shape after dinking with it so much. I went ahead and modeled a quicky environment for a larger version (10 ft. tall) to live in, complete with treeses and translucent loiterers.

Design Process. Sorta.

2006-02-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

or, How NOT to Make a Sculpture.

Haven't posted anything new in a while, due to massive problems I'm having on this new design. It all started innocently enough: a sketch of an interweaving, "infinity"-esque design on the little notepad I keep next to my computer.

Let the games begin! I started messing around with the idea in Wings3d, the sweet little FREE, open-source modeler, from which I was able to get workable proximity of what I'd envisioned. But Wings doesn't really have the kind of CAD accuracy necessary for producing real-world objects, so I tried importing said design into Sketch-Up. Despite trying several different variations of several different file formats, I couldn't get clean enough geometry to properly unfold. I tried rebuilding the main elements inside SU from what geometry was available, but the tedium level was daunting (dragging points to ensure planar surfaces is NOT something SU is geared toward). From there I tried adding some new tools into my toolbox, including Modo and some so bad I won't even mention them here, but soon realized that I was falling into the trap of playing with new software rather than resolving the issue at hand. So I've started over from scratch, intent on doing everything inside Sketch-Up so as to avoid the pitfalls of importing/exporting and fubar geometry. I was able to use the previous work to at least get some images of what I'm striving towards, in hopes of generating some client interest. I still need to create clean, developable geometry and build a usable path for the laser, but at least you can see what I'm shooting at.

Oh, and in case anyone's interested, here's where the magic happens:

ps the really frustrating thing about all this is that in Rhino I could have done this design three times over again by now, and probably would be out in the shop welding right now. But Rhino is Windoze-only. I hate that. (Come on, McNeel, crawl out of Gates roomy back pocket and port it, already! Didja hear? Steve's gone Intel!)

Duet

2006-01-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

This is one of those designs that helped refine my process. I was playing with shapes inside Rhino and arrived at this. I created an unfolded pattern using an automatic command for doing so inside the software, and sent it off to the laser (see my description of this process in earlier posts). When I started assembling it, I discovered a major mistake: it wasn't possible! Rhino allows unrolling surfaces with a small degree of compound curvature (curved in more than one direction), depending on tolerances set within the program. Steel, on the other hand, gets really grumpy when you try to stretch it in this manner. I ended up making the first design work by some creative cutting and welding, but knew that a redesign was definitely in order for the remainder of the edition. Enter SketchUp; it pretty much forces all surfaces to be planar, thus better emulating my real-world design limits. The revamped pattern went together with none of the earlier problems. Learning from mistakes is fun. Really. It just costs a few hundred dollars and a few curses.
A smaller version of the newer design:

Oh, yeah. I call this one "Duet" because it suggests two stylized human heads with open mouths, singing.

Solar Sails

2006-01-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

I did this one for the City of Paramount, California. They wanted a fun, whimsical piece that would fit into the center median of a busy street. I subcontracted the metal work out on it, as the 18' height and the 1/4 inch steel plate they were to be constucted from required tools outside my reach at the time.

Making a Sculpture: Finis!

2006-01-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Making a Sculpture: Part 4

2006-01-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

Now that I've got all the components folded back up and welded off, I need to assemble them all together to make the finished piece. It's at this stage that I need to make sure what finish will work best for the piece; if a colored powder coat is desired, I then need to grind off all the welds ("chase" them) to leave a nice smooth joint with no pits or scratches. I like the heat patterns to show on the "Pharaoh's Dream" as it adds another level of visual metaphor.

Once the components are all assembled, the sculpture gets a clear powder coat to prevent it from rusting and to give it a nice sheen.

Making a Sculpture: Intermission

2006-01-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Just noticed that one of my favorite painters has posted new work to his site.

Making a Sculpture: Part 3

2006-01-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

Craptacular image of a CO2 laser at work. The actual process is hypnotic to witness, as the computer-controlled machine deftly cuts out parts with ridiculous accuracy, leaving a mirror-smooth edge that doesn't require any clean-up. Anyone who's cut out steel parts with a torch or plasma cutter will tell you that this is JUST TOO EFFING COOL! (And I'm afraid I may be depleting my quota of hyphens for the day.)

This is what the lasercut component looks like. It's 16 gauge (.06 in. thick) cold-rolled steel. The TIG torch can be seen in the upper right. What the laser is to the cutting process, TIG is to welding. Clean, spatter-free, with excellent penetration, temperature, and cosmetic control. I have a Maxstar 200 by Miller. It's the size of an inkjet printer and can run off any voltage power source with at least 15 amp service. Sweeeeet! Here's a couple more shots of the assembly:

Making a Sculpture: Part 2

2006-01-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

After I'm happy with my design, I need to start preparing to bring it into the "real" world. Each component must be isolated and unfolded inside the computer. This process is much easier with a design based on platonic solids (like Pharaoh's Dream) than one with more free-form elements.

Once all the components are unfolded, I place them all on a single plane that represents the raw sheet steel stock they will be cut from. It is also necessary to add tabs where the individual folds will happen, as well as allowing for the inherent stretching that occurs when bending steel. With that done, I end up with a pattern that is ready to be sent to the laser cutter.

Making a Sculpture

2006-01-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here's my secret recipe for making a sculpture. The first step is to agonize over a design inside a 3d application on the computer; I use Sketch-Up at this point. Back in the dark days on Windows, I used Rhino for my design workhorse. It is a much more powerful, and therefore more complicated, program. There are programs of comparable power on the Mac (formZ pops to mind), but I've fallen in love with the idea of simplicity, and Sketch-Up is elegant and spare in it's design, but plenty capable for my needs.

I'll use my sculpture "Pharaoh's Dream" to demonstrate. My design goal on this thing was to somehow convey the idea of the impermanence of the ego and the folly of erecting monuments to it. The Egyptian Pharaohs who sought to glorify themselves by ordering the creation of the great pyramids really only succeeded in underscoring their own mortality. What comes to mind when you think of Ancient Egypt? For me, it is the pyramid, stripped of any creator's name or identity. So I chose to symbolize this by having only pyramids spiraling up to the heavens out of the great archetypal base pyramid, rather than any trace of the pharaoh's transcendent ego. Dust to dust, indeed.

Here is what I ended up with.

Digital Sculpture

2006-01-09T14:32:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel really limited by the constraints of reality on my creativity. Trying to always figure out how to make something out of real-world materials can be a serious buzzkill. Inside my computer, though, I'm free to experiment and do things that would be impossible eldewhere. I use the amazing ZBrush to sculpt digitally what I can't make with my welder. Very fun.

Micah Lebrun

2006-01-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

More here

3d Cartoon Sensei

2006-01-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

Creative and fun. This guy has an amazing formal sense; he is the Brancusi of cartoons.

Large Cubetower

2006-01-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

A bigger version of the Cubetower, this one is 10 feet tall. The photo was taken in front of Columbine Galleries' Santa Fe location — at the Inn at Loretto. I've been showing with them from the day they opened their doors in 1992. Not just another gallery, but dear friends.

Cubetower

2006-01-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

This sculpture is mostly just a whimsical exploration of stacking cubes. A lot of my work seems to involve juxtaposition of simple elements; trying to eek meaning from basic forms and their interactions. I like the metaphorical relationship to... well, relationships.

Like most of my newest work, this piece was designed using 3d modeling software on the computer, cut from 16 gauge steel with a laser, and assembled with a TiG welder. I'm doing an edition of 10 on this one. The finish is a clear powder coat, which allows the cool heat patterns created by the welder to be seen. I especially like the effect on this piece, as the patterns reinforce and accentuate the cubic forms. Oh, yeah... it's 50 inches tall.

(Cool heat? What the hell am I talking about?)