Good abstract work is anything but arbitrary. The movement of a single line by just a smidge is the difference between “good” and “meh.” That is the distance that matters; that is the gap that holds the key to making something worthwhile. All the infrastructure, all the tools, all the time in the world do […]
Chopping wood, in a weird way, led to the creation of this latest sculpture… a fine little piece I’m calling Eye of the Needle. With every passing year, the Seasons have a growing effect on the structure of my life. There are times of the year that are just better for certain things than others. […]
I’m making some excellent progress on the sculpture I shared in the Evolution of a Sketch post earlier this week. It’s funny how surprised I often am in the execution of a piece… I have a design on hand and in mind, yet when it actually comes to making it, an unexpected world opens up. […]
The difficulty does not lie in the rigidity or weight of the steel. I do not fear the labor of bending it to my skill. The pain does not lie in the vibration of the grinder or the impact of the hammer. Soreness is common now, and I suspect it will grow in time. The […]
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 […]
If I try really hard, I can recall this vague feeling from when I was younger… Almost obsessively, I would ruminate on what it must feel like to be truly excellent at something. Imagine you are Michelangelo or Michael Jordan, it doesn’t particularly matter. But what does matter is that you are at the pinnacle […]
Walking through my orchard, I noticed a most peculiar thing. There, in a small apple tree, was a frog impaled on a short spike of a branch. But what was a frog doing in a tree? An incredibly curious thing, I was momentarily confused as my mind tried to find an explanation. But soon enough […]
I picked Seed up the other day from the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour in Mankato, MN. It was on exhibit there for one year and took home Best in Show. Nice to have it back home again. It reminds me of a short meditation I wrote a while back which I don’t believe I’ve shared […]
Very little is as satisfying to me as work done well. When things come together, when a myriad of small decisions and acts coalesce into a greater whole, when effort has been focused into a single defining task – that is exhilarating to me. I have been known to literally sound my barbaric yawp in […]
Rust is a degradation of material, entropy intruding in a silent but devastating manner. Oxidation is an inevitability, something that can be held off for a time but cannot be kept forever at bay because it is an essential part of the cycle of life and death. For me, rust is a practical solution that […]
Listening to an interview with Joel Salatin recently, he wrapped it up with some words of advice: Your grandma used to always say, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” But that isn’t correct. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly… at first. Anything worth doing has to be started somewhere, and when […]
I do not believe it is possible to predict where Beauty will reveal itself. More importantly, I do not believe it is possible to control the revelation. We think it can be created, but that is merely a helpful fiction that allows us to continue in our work. We become skilled, spend years refining our […]
If you read one essay on the challenges of creating, selling and buying art in these difficult economic times, I suggest Art in the New Economy by Alan Bamberger.
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