Recent Sculptures

Falling Water

The first thing I did when I knew the sale of Seascape was going through was to start work on a replacement. It's taken several months but this week I installed Falling Water. This is an ambitious piece with 5 independent patterning wheels and 3 drive springs. It runs for about 21 hours per winding. The sound it makes is a pleasantly random soft clicking that you only hear if you listen for it.

Marji came up with the name shortly after seeing the first animation test. We both knew it was right as soon as she said it.

The wall the sculpture is mounted on is 14 feet high. My shop has only 10 foot ceilings. I had to mount the sculpture sideways to set it up and get it going. I spent a lot of time with my head twisted sideways trying to get an idea of how it would look vertical!

This is my largest and most complex sculpture to date. I wasn't sure if it would work as planned. In the end it took a few days of tweaking to get it to work reliably but that is one of my favorite parts of designing. It is when the sculpture teaches me!




The last Illusion

In June I made Illusion #36. This is the last of the Illusion edition I started in 2005. It is rewarding to finish an edition. The sense of completion, a job well done. It is also a bit sad. I get to know each of my sculptures intimately through the course of an edition. Each sculpture teaches me something new, design tweaks, construction techniques and most rewarding, ideas for new sculptures.