New Influence/Direction

After having seen Frank Stella's Irregular Polygons at Dartmouth's Hood Museum and listening to him talk a few days later, I decided my work would be more interesting if I escaped the tyranny of rectangularity.

Five Randomly Tapered Planks
(Update 2/4/11: I changed the name of this piece to
A Tear of Joy and Profound Admiration)
shellac on curly maple, curly yellow birch,
curly/bird's-eye yellow birch
approx. 47" x 42" x 1"

Having milled these five planks many months earlier, I was having trouble deciding on how to arrange them, but as soon as my mind opened to the idea of adding random angles to the work, it fell together much better. It seems like such a simple idea but it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. It will be interesting to see where it leads.

Alternate Orientation
approx. 58" x 34" x 1"

In addition to the unique shape of this piece, the middle plank is particularly interesting in that it is made with bird's-eye yellow birch. I had no idea that such a thing existed (and didn't know I had bought it until after I put it through the jointer) but now that I know I'll take extra care to look for it at the lumber mill.

yellow birch bird's-eye closeup

ArtPrize Proposal

This is my ArtPrize proposal. I submitted it last week but might not know until July if a venue is willing to display it. If you click on it you can see a larger version to make reading the text easier. I call it the State of the Union flag because I plan to propose that it be used as the backdrop behind the President during the State of the Union address, in the hopes that commentators will talk about the art behind the President rather than their interpretations of what was said.
I went to the lumber mill/yard last week to select the wood. Although the proposal says bird's-eye maple for the blue/navy/purple stripes, they didn't have any that would work. Instead, they had some blistered maple, which I decided would actually be better because it would be more visible from a distance. I also selected two large boards of curly maple for the white stripes but, unfortunately, because of the way one of the boards was warped, the white stripes would have only been about 3 inches wide instead of the 4 that I'm planning. So I need to go back sometime and look again. For the red stripes I found some yellow curly maple that is more figured, and more fabric-like, than what I had previously selected. Although the other lumber was good, I couldn't honestly say that it was $250,000 good. One way I could tell that the new curly yellow birch was better than what I had previously selected was that in rough cutting and milling it, it was binding around the bandsaw and tearing out terribly while flattening it with the jointer. The earlier lumber didn't give me any of those problems.

Because of the success of ArtPrize last year, all indications are that it will be a much larger event this year. The competition just to get in is going to be huge, let alone into one of the prime venues and having a chance of winning. Regardless of whether the work is selected, I'm still committed to building it. One of the best things about the event is the inspiration to make something that has a chance to win, which alone could be enough to launch an art career.

Proposal For A Better State of The Union Speech

Last night, in watching the State of the Union speech, my mind was fixated on the flag and how the ripples in the fabric look just like the figure in curly yellow birch.
Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, I bought 2 twelve-foot boards of the stuff on Tuesday for just such a project.I propose that next year Barack Obama should make his speech with these behind him. I think we'd all be better off if the self-important blow-bags spent their time commenting on the art behind the President's head rather then their interpretation of what he said.

Delivered and Installed

Yesterday I delivered and installed the seashell commission. Thankfully, everything when smoothly. No damage to the piece getting it down there. No car accidents. No major forgotten items. No installation iterations. It took a little over an hour to put it together, determine the exact location, and place it. I'm not totally surprised; I didn't think it would take long, but I was a little nervous that something would go wrong and I would have to drive back to Vermont without accomplishing the mission.

Epitonium apexaurum (Hitzig, 2010)
curly yellow birch, walnut, shellac, gold
82" x 48" x 1"

Unfortunately, the client had jury duty so she didn't get to see the installation, but her husband, sister, and interior designer(?) were all happy with the finished piece. I have to say I'm happy with the results as well. It looks better than I had envisioned in that the figure in the yellow birch is better than I could have hoped for and the scale of the piece is perfect for the space.
I named it Epitonium apexaurum (Hitzig, 2010) because the shape is based primarily on shells of the Epitoniidae family, which includes Epitonium. Here is a good example of a different genus in the same family, Amaea ferminiana (Dall, 1908):The apexaurum part of the name is just a reference to the fact that the tip is gilded, unlike any other species in the family. Fortunately, as an artist, I do not have to go through the same peer review process as a biologist or paleontologist in naming a new species. They would probably tell me, among other things, that I should have included it in the Amaea genus. However, I'm not sure how to pronounce that word and my nomenclature rules allow exceptions for such things (nothing more embarrassing then for an artist to go around mispronouncing the name of his own piece).

Shell Commission Update

Here is the roughed-out shell commission. Having heard Hank Gilpin give a talk at Gallery NAGA two days ago, I've been thinking about what he said about commissions, how they are a great opportunity to do interesting things that he wouldn't normally do (he gave an example of a ten foot long table six inches high). I think this is a good example. There is no way I would have thought of doing a giant sea shell but I'm happy to be doing it and pleased with how it is looking. In this way, it is really a collaboration with the client. I don't mind collaborating; there is no reason I need to work alone with self-inspiration. Although there is always a risk in working with other people - that you may create a camel when you really want a horse - but done right, it can be an opportunity to make something much better than one would otherwise do.It looks like it will turn out to be 83" rather than the 80" I had in my drawing but I'm sure that isn't a problem. I was able to select curly yellow birch boards with similar figure and all the curls are moving in the same direction so it should look like one consistent board throughout the piece. I'll bleach the heart wood out of the top three sections so it won't distract from the coloring. The section second from the bottom is darker than the rest because I had started shellacking it to get an idea of what it would look like.

Working with yellow birch also has me thinking about Hank Gilpin because he is famous for his use of rarely used species, which yellow birch is. Though, I now have a good understanding of why yellow birch is such an under-utilized wood. Frankly, it is a pain in the butt to cut. The wood is so hard and the curl so intense that you need to make the very smallest cuts on the joiner and planer or the grain will tear out with deep gouges. Then, there is so much tension in the wood that I can't get it through the table saw in one pass; the boards pinch the blade as it is going through so I have to repeatedly stop the saw, pull it out, and start again. A four foot board can take 4 tries to get it through the saw (rough cutting with the band saw might have been a good idea). Although it is extra work, it will be worth it. Yellow birch is the right species for this project and it will look great when I'm done. Besides, cutting the boards is an almost insignificant part of the project. I'll spend so many more hours painting it, I won't have any memory of the difference in cutting time when I'm done.