Spring is (very nearly) in the air – it’s time to start getting ready. I’ve had my trees ordered for months now but still have work to do on making “tree mats,” accumulating wood chips and fixing/building more water tanks. Initially, I had planned to scale planting back a bit after last year. Obviously that […]
I recently discovered these stunning sculptures by fellow Minnesota sculptor Aaron Spangler. His work no doubt needs to be fully appreciated in person, but the images are enough to cause me to flutter with excitement. Though carved in basswood, they really look like they were hewn from the soil itself. These are fully realized works […]
The vast majority of all new work created is terrible. Utterly forgettable. When you think of the sheer volume of things made or ideas had at any given moment, it could not be otherwise. Like an evolutionary brainstorming session, we throw everything we have up against the wall just to see what sticks. And most […]
A couple weeks ago was the opening of the annual Essential Art Competition by one of our local organizations, Visual Arts Minnesota. I’ve been doing the show for years and it’s a good reason to get out of the studio in the middle of winter and visit the beautiful Paramount Theatre in downtown St. Cloud. […]
I rarely show anyone sketches or working drawings for sculptures. If you happen to drop by the studio and see the materials scattered about, that’s fine. In fact, feel free to page through the stacks of drawings on the counter as well. Knock yourself out, you might find something interesting. It’s not for any ideological […]
Happy (somewhat belated) New Year to everyone out there! Personally, I’ve been waiting for 2013 for some time now. See those two shriveled up and dying gooseberry cuttings on the left that didn’t take? Yeah, those are 2012. See those healthy two in the cup on the right, thrusting out new branches and threatening to […]
As promised, two more Artifact sculptures… You can see the natural tendency for these sculptures to “grow” – Artifact VII is more than twice as big as some earlier ones. In general, I hope to constrain that expansion, but sometimes you just have to work in the scale that feels best, as revealed by the […]
The first sculptures are finally complete… and I couldn’t be happier! If you didn’t catch my earlier posts about the origin of these pieces, you can find them here and here. These are all one-of-a-kind sculptures, fabricated entirely by myself (as usual). They are a mix of mild and Cor-ten steel, finished with a two-part […]
A little while back I exhibited at Sculpture at the River Market in Little Rock, AR and took home a couple awards. There were six Awards of Excellence given out and I received one of those, which was quite nice. The really cool one, however, was the Peer Award. Voted on by the other sculptors, […]
I’ve decided to call this new series the Artifacts. They are simply captivating little pieces you want to pick up, turn over in your hands and speculate on. Are they natural? Fashioned by human hands? They feel as if they’ve just been pulled out of the black soil of the land… what can be more […]
I recently dropped off a pair of sculptures at the Anderson Center for the Arts down in Red Wing, MN for the grand opening of their new expansion/renovation of a beautiful old barn. Actually, I suspect the barn started out beautiful, then went into slow decline over the next 100+ years of it’s life, until […]
Those of you who’ve always wanted to know if I have anything smaller available, will soon be in luck. I have a new series of mini sculptures in progress, and I’ll be adding to them for the next few weeks at least. Here’s the second one in progress: And with fabrication complete: What strikes me […]
Winter is coming… you can smell it in the frost of the sunrise.
This is a great image of Nighthawk in its permanent home, taken by the owner. I love it when my work finds a great home.
Another great artist/craftsman I met recently was Brad Smith. Check out his studio at Bradford Woodworking. I really like his tagline – “farm fresh furniture” – because it perfectly describes the kind of work he does. Well-crafted and honest with subtle detail and humor, his furniture is the kind you would be glad to live […]
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