Springville Museum of Art Spiritual and Religious Show

The Springville Museum of Art has an annual spiritual and religious art show.  I entered two sculptures I made last year, and one of them got in!  It was titled, Heaven but I changed it to These are They Who Came Out of Great Tribulation.  Apparently, it was debated among the curatorial staff whether it should be curated in or not.  Anyway, we got to go see the opening on Friday and it was cool, as always, to see my art on display.  Call me narcissistic, but I always think its cool when my art is out for everyone to see.

New Slinky Sculptures

I've been working on a new Slinky sculpture in the last little bit.  I've had the idea for this piece for over a year, but I'm just now getting the engineering down.  I wanted to recreate the motion of a Slinky as you "juggle" it back and forth in your hands.  After a few failed designs, the one below won out. It's not finished yet, but it is in moderately working condition, so here's a picture:

(P.S. This picture is a composite of 4 separate pictures.)

I also made a static (mostly) Slinky sculpture with some steel I found out in the scrap bin.  This one is inspired by one of my friends who, while playing with one of my Slinky toys, draped it over his finger.  I thought "Hey, that's a cool way to look at a Slinky."  So I made it.

There are lots more things on the way.  Stay tuned.

The Show Must Go On

And so it did! Thank you so much to everyone who helped make Apparatus of Play a success. It was a great learning experience to put up my first solo show, but hey, that's what college is for, right? So, I will take you through a mini-tour of the show via pictures and I will upload video in the near future.

This was the first piece you saw when you walked in the door. It's title is And Time Creeps On and On Like a Slinky Attached to a Windshield Wiper. The Slinky is roughly 4 1/2 feet long and is powered, as the title suggests, by a windshield wiper motor.

This little guy is called The Battle of Four Corners. Its a steel frame with plastic army men inside. About 9 inches square, hangs on the wall.

This is Contemplation Chair (On the Other Hand). It is a found chair with a Slinky on it. You're supposed to sit in the chair, hold the Slinky, and contemplate life.

This sculpture is entitled Heaven. I found the gear in a dumpster a few months ago, put glass panes on either side and filled it with 144 marbles. It also hangs on the wall.

This is Heaven's companion piece. It is called Labyrinth and is made from stone, bronze, and dross. The dross represents the damned who are esteemed as dross and cast out to wander forever under the watchful gaze of Cerberusaurus, the three-headed dinosaur.

This was a favorite at the show. Nappy Noah is a 32 x 42 inch replica of the old Wooly Willy toys. I changed it to be me so it would be a self-portrait of sorts. It really has iron filings and a magnet wand so you can change the facial hair. Man, I look good with a beard.

Parachute Soldier. This is a bronze cast from a paratrooper toy. He hangs helplessly on the board, as his parachute has been caught on the nails in back.

This is a funny one. It is called Permanent Record (GPA 1-12) and it is a Slinky graph of my academic performance from first through twelfth grade.

This is Slinky Self Portrait. This was on display by itself in January, but fit wonderfully into the show. It is 5'11" high and wide (my height and arm span) and has Slinky toys strung across it. The Slinky toys are picked music box style by a steel bar at the bottom. Really fun to watch.

And last, but not least, When Enough is Never Enough. There are four little bronze paratroopers dangling from a real live parachute. They are kept aloft and twirl around because of the breeze from the fan underneath, and occasionally they will ping together.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the virtual picture tour of my show. I will have video up in a week or so, depending on how quickly I edit and compress everything. Have fun until then!