Limited Edition of 75 • Size: 22" w x 22" h x 6" d
Approximate Run Time: 5 Hours
Spirit © 2019
About Spirit
I’m often asked if I can make sculptures for smaller rooms. Over the years my sculptures have grown. Sculptures with larger wheels have more momentum and can run more slowly. This fit with my desire to create graceful, slow moving and long running sculptures. But the idea of creating a smaller piece that retained the feel of the larger ones was a challenge. This is the time of my life for taking on new challenges and this seemed like a fun one.
The asymmetrical fan/arc wheel design is one of my favorites. The first time I tried this type of wheel was on a sculpture called Dragon in 1989 and the first self contained sculpture is called Wings from 1991. Another favorite is Tapestry from 1999 but I think the most successful design was my sculpture Nautilus in 2014. I started a project called “Tiny Nautilus”.
I redesigned a Nautilus type wheel with the idea of making a 20 inch diameter wheel. Why 20 inches? When I started making sculptures all the wheels had to fit within 20 x 20” wood blanks. For nostalgic reasons it seemed a good place to start. In the end I didn’t quite make it. Spirit’s wheels are 22 inches in diameter. Wheels smaller than that just didn’t have enough momentum to trigger the type of self contained mechanism I wanted to use. Even with 22” I had to rework the mechanism to achieve the kind of slow graceful motion I wanted.
My 5 (at the time) year old granddaughter told me she liked this sculpture because it made hearts. So for a time I thought Hearts might work as a name but no one liked it. Naming is hard. In the end we settled on the name Spirit but Nostalgia might have been a good name also.
About the Sound:
The sculpture will make 1 soft click per revolution and a somewhat louder click periodically when the mechanism pushes the wheels.
Spirit displayed in a room setting. David’s sculpture Sky Quest is on the left for size comparison.
Additional Photos:
