More New Work and New Titles

Here are some more images of new work. This first one is a continuation of my wedge series, being my forth. For what ever reason (perhaps the sub-zero temperatures we are experiencing in Vermont right now), the red in this piece reminded me of the redbud tree buds you see while driving around the North Carolina country side in April, hence the title. It was made by laminating a sheet of walnut veneer between two 2" thick boards of curly maple so there is a fine black line between the two sides. It hangs flat against the wall by resting on a cleat that sits inside a mortise.

Carolina Spring (left side)
shellac on curly maple and walnut
29" x 4" x 9"

Carolina Spring (right side)

The title of this piece is based on what I think is its celebratory feel, looking almost like confetti falling down. The maple is about the whitest I have ever worked with and is a dramatic contrast to the almost black of the walnut (hence, the different colored background). The thin diagonal lines running across the maple is a walnut veneer that I glued vertically between the maple quadrilaterals. It rests on a cleat that off-sets it one inch from the wall.

Forever Holiday
shellac on curly maple and walnut
41" x 25" x 1"

Along with the pieces above, I had professional images taken of work that I completed a couple of months ago. I retitled the one below (mentioned in a earlier post) A Tear of Joy and Profound Admiration because I decided that my work is much better with poetic titles rather than descriptive ones. The line came to me when I heard that Nelson Mandela was recently hospitalized and I thought, how sad, but an instant latter I thought, but he is 92 and we should be more happy about the life that he has led than sad he is nearing the end. It is a lot of pressure making work that has to live up to the titles but it is also better that the title add something to the piece than for them to just be an afterthought.

A Tear of Joy and Profound Admiration
shellac on curly birch and curly maple
52.5" x 32" x 1"

I also retitled this piece (mentioned earlier here) Green Chimneys, for the same reason. It is named after a Thelonious Monk tune because I feel it has a musical feel that is somewhat similar to the unexpected notes he would play. I also like how there is "green" only in the title, adding a little mystery to the piece.

Green Chimneys (right side)
shellac on curly maple and cherry
49" x 20" x 4"
Green Chimneys (left side)

Now that I have these pieces out of the way I'm trying to finish another ribbon (from this series) in time for the Baltimore ACC show at the end of the month. I went to the lumber mill last week and picked up a beautiful board of curly birch, 9" x 3" x 10'. I was planning on picking up a thick board of cherry but what I found was a third the price and much more interesting. I'm excited to seeing what comes of it.

Moment of Anxiety

There is a moment of anxiety when I place a finished piece on the wall and see it for the first time as it should be shown. I've never known a piece to live up to my expectations as I stand back (perhaps because delusions of grandeur are the only thing that can keep me motivated to finish it) but I at least hope that I'm not disappointed. No matter how I look at a sculpture or painting while I'm working on it, how many times I hang it, arrange the individual pieces or place them together, the final hanging is always different and a surprise.

Five Wedges
(Update 2/4/11: I changed the name of this piece to
Green Chimneys)
shellac on curly maple and cherry
49" x 20" x 4"

With this one I am less disappointed than most, which I have to accept as total success.

I think it is very musical. The colors have a rhythm as you look from the right or left sides, which I wasn't expecting as much as I had planned for the wedge shapes and placement to be rhythmic. Initially, I thought viewing from the right was better, with the yellow on each piece, but now, looking from the left and seeing the red/yellow pattern, I can't choose.
I've been listening to a lot of jazz as I work and would like to think that this sculpture is influenced by Thelonious Monk. I find it amazing how the notes he plays are simultaneously completely wrong and completely perfect. I think my only disappointment in this piece is in not seeing a similar quality, something needed to be more wrong and unexpected but I'm not sure what.

close-up (right)

From the fine art world though, it is influenced by Anne Truitt. After seeing her work on-line, I wanted to play around with making 3-D pieces that were colored differently on each side. I also like how she makes paintings of minimalist 3-D forms. I debated for months whether to make this a wall piece or something for a pedestal but could never think of a good way to display them on a pedestal so I went for the wall.

close-up (left)

I also struggled for months on cutting the wedges. They might look simple but my only hope of cutting the faces with clean lines and without tear-out (because of the intense figure) was to improve my skills with handplanes. Thankfully, Garrett Hack gave a workshop on using hand tools nearby over the summer and the Vermont Arts Council gave me a grant to help pay for it. Dealing with tear-out is the most difficult problem of working with figured lumber so I'm sure my new skills will help me save a lot of time on future work.

Update (Nov. 11, 2010): I have added an image of this piece on a real wall to give a more realistic view of it.