Threading the Needle, 2018, 11' x 13' x 20'
My desire with "Threading the Needle" was to have two independent but related shapes dance around and flow over one another to offer the viewer intriguing spaces and passages to experience.
The result, I feel, is joyful and exuberant.
Typically, I explore my ideas by developing 3D scale models. This allows me to resolve all the spatial and aesthetic aspects and satisfy myself before I consider any of the construction issues. Later it serves as a guide for fabrication. It also helps me resolve color choices. You’ll notice that I adjusted my thinking somewhat for the actual sculpture.
The plates are bent incrementally, as shown by the white lines, in a 150-ton press that I designed and built some years ago.
I needed to add a stiffening element to one of the sections which required considerable rigging to torque it into shape to match the base plate.
While the colors I chose are wildly different from one another, their relative energies balance each other. The foreground piece shows the mastic epoxy primer while the completed one behind is wrapped to protect it from the overspray.
While the colors were drying, we (Tom on the right), poured the foundation elements. Once stripped and fully cured, they are set in the ground to secure the sculpture.
Send inquiry about Threading the Needle.