Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Bicycle Racks



Here's a preview of the new sculptural bike parking for the Kent Downtown Partnership. Shown is the fabricated frame in its powdercoated state: the proposal drawing depicts the rack with hand painted detail and resin insets, to be completed by the artist. The Lace Leaf Bicycle Racks will be installed in early 2009.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

in the Flow


I am honored to be included in a two-person show with David Eisenhour at Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.

Entitled Two in the Flow, the show features a common thread of organic forms in a variety of materials, and is beautifully hung throughout the gallery. The exhibit is on display July 13 - October 5, 2008.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Work in Progress


The working model of the sculpture, held in place by David Strauss and ably assisted by Chris Armes, both of SHKS Architects. Constructed of a true madrona branch and red painted paper, the piece serves as an indicator of scale and overall appearance for the indoor sculpture.

Context and Initial Thoughts






From top to bottom:
Arbutus menziesii illustration, courtesy of Southwest School of Botanical Medicine's fabulous resource.
Bead/Flow, installation by the artist at Port Angeles Fine Art Center, Washington.
Pomegranate detail of bronze frame sculpture at Aereoporto Galileo Galilei, Pisa, Italy.
Ilex pollen grain illustration by the artist.
Stair and railing detail of Magnolia library 34th street entrance.

Beginning


Children waiting for the opening of the original Magnolia Bluff Station of the Seattle Public Library. The window, the anticipation, the treasures inside.

Catch + Release





The Magnolia Public Library opened this weekend, and featured Catch + Release, a new pair of sculptures that inhabit spaces in and out of the newly constructed meeting room addition by SHKS Architects.

Designed to connect interior and exterior spaces by relating to this lovely south-facing window of the library, the works refer both to the madrona tree around which the original library and landscape architecture was conceived and to the function of the library as disseminator and patrons as collectors of information.

The work is made of steel and hand-cast polyurethane resin.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Magnolia Library Artwork

Catch + Release is a pair of site-specific sculptures created for the Magnolia Library: a branch suspended from the ceiling of the meeting room above the south window and a basket outside the south window. The pieces connect interior to exterior, recall the landscape history of the Magnolia Library site and allude to the function of the library and the patrons who use it.

The interior branch is woven of blackened annealed steel wire using a basket technique, and studded with large, handmade red and orange polyurethane resin beads. This structure hangs from the ceiling at an angle that is visible from the main part of the library, gesturing toward the south window. This window forms a connection to the exterior basket, which is located just outside. Constructed of stainless steel, additional cast resin beads are suspended on the basket’s vertical ribs. Light and shadow also link the two sculptures: the branch is lit from a high angle toward the south wall, broadcasting shadowy lines from the wire and ghostly color from the resin, while the basket is lit from below, illuminating the “berries” and reflecting off the basket in the dark.

The madrona tree around which the original building and landscape architecture was designed provides the conceptual framework for Catch + Release. The suspended branch and its resin beads mimic the mature fruiting arbutus, and invite nature inside the building; outside, the basket captures additional berries. The title Catch + Release refers to these actions of fruiting and gathering, paired activities of nature and humans that work as a metaphor for the relationship between library as information provider and patrons as collectors and disseminators.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Leafboat Benches at Hiawatha Artists Lofts







These resin and steel benches can be seen at the Hiawatha Artists' Lofts on Charles Street, just a block to the east of Rainier Avenue South. The seats suggest leaf boats made by children to float down streams, relating to the bioswale/raingarden they flank. The leaves are both archetypical shapes and specific to the site: Scarlet Oak, Vine Maple and Serviceberry. This project was sponsored jointly by Artspace and a Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Grant.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Pollen


Redmond Elementary School, Redmond, WA

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Tools for Creativity

Quarter Century Edition of The Paradise of Childhood A Practical Guide to Kindergartners By Edward Wiebé, Henry Wolcott Blake

Amazing writing, turn of the century, on early childhood learning and creativity, with illustrations. This work is based on Freidrich Froebel's vision for education of young children, in which " The kindergarten was essentially tri-partite:
  • toys for sedentary creative play (these Froebel called gifts and occupations)
  • games and dances for healthy activity
  • observing and nurturing plants in a garden for stimulating awareness of the natural world

It was a search for metaphysical unity, in which the potential growth to wholeness of the individual child within the natural world would fulfill an harmonious ideal... " Peter Weston in The Froebel Educational Institute: the Origins and History of the College, found reprinted at http://www.froebelweb.org/.

See a beautiful collection of the Twenty Gifts promoted by Froebel at The Institute for Figuring and think about how those transcend their use for children into sculptural forms that stand on their own.