ArtPrize Respite

It is Raining in Grand Rapids, thank God. I have a day to chill a bit after the 24/7 build, install and tending of the Car Chase for ArtPrize. What a marathon. I’m used to all nighters to hit a deadline making a piece, I had planed for a brutal installation schedule, but it had not occurred to me how much tending the public venue would require. The BOB parking lot is the hottest spot in town. That’s great for the voting. I’m running in the top 25 and people really seem to enjoy the piece. But there is an acrobatic performance next to me and 2500 people pack in and want to use my piece as a set of bleachers. I get up on a lamp pole base4 times a day to monitor and spook nearby people yelling: “PLEASE do not climb on the sculpture.” The parking lot has food and drink booths including beer, so the crowd lasts well after midnight. They kick over my lamps, and set their kids on it for a picture. But I hand out number cards and tell the story over and over, and they vote for me. 5 strait days of this routine is now behind me with just a few days before round one is over.

Had a couple of bugs come down in the wind storm last night but it still looks pretty good. Oh to win a prize and recoup some expenses!

Friends in from out of town so we will enjoy a lunch at the BOB. The owner stops by, he is doing well and I am a major attraction. He quips: “Hey tj, mind if I stand on your sculpture?” Thanks Greg. More next time from ArtPrize in GR.
TJ.

Back to The Mission – 57 Descending a switchback after Duchamp

After all the Nike studies and creating 5 new pieces I came back to the original objective “The 57 descending”, a work based on the Painting “Nude Descending a Staircase” I had a mold for the bronze pedestal sized “Boomer’s Nike” so I cast a bunch of these and constructed the model. All through an exercise like this I am thinking about the full sized version and what it will take to make one of these that is 12 feet high and could weigh several tons. I assembled the components and modeled the transitions into the finished the model. Next came a rubber mold to cast it in, the most complicated mold I have ever designed, with fins projecting in all directions. But I was determined to cast it all in one piece. Quick calculations told me this could weigh 2 to 300lbs and would need two people and a chain fall to manage the casting process. And this was just the pedestal size! The mold was designed for that purpose.

. A nice yellow beige color was created for the base mix to imitate the Duchamp painting The piece was cast in Concrete. An assistant and I managed to do the casting in about an 8 hour session and it worked out pretty well. My new area for wet grinding cement was tried out during this project and of course I had to re-design the set up for improvements. I have some ancient iron wheeled carts for factory transport that turned out to be great turn tables for this heavy, wet finishing work. The piece was ready for the Velocity show in Minneapolis. It weighs about 230lbs. and I do have to bring my engine hoist when I install this baby.

Every 15 degrees or so is a brand new composition, and when you experience descending a mountain road the energy is a lot like this. I hope I paid sufficient homage to Duchamp in this composition. And to the Harley Earl team that created those beloved Chevy fins. I look forward to the day I can build the big one.

My last few thoughts and spin outs on the Nike series were about the dreams of car collectors. Like dear in the headlights, all they can see is their favorite. The rest are of no importance, hence the headlight pieces as wall reliefs for My 57 Chevy fans,. Oh and one last note; under construction is the “Rites of Passage” installation with a 57, but this will wait for my next series of postings on the big installations in the Art park.

Next time: the Overheads-my forayer into Modern American Tribal Art using car parts

Thanks

Tj

AH Freedom, like the ability to fly!

AH Freedom, like the ability to fly! That was the promise of the early American sport cars. They were designed to entice the growing affluent of the 50s to buzz around the country in a care free style like the Italians and British did in their fiats and triumphs. And just maybe you might take one of these to the track as well! GM experimented with fiber glass and put one into production, followed quickly by Ford. But both introductory models were under powered and not real race cars, just super sexy sporty possessions for living the American dream. Who can forget the Rout 66 theme song and that cool image of the Vette going down the long strip of two lane at dusk. Or Richard Dryfus’ glimpses of that elusive vixen in American Graffiti, sitting just ahead of that port hole window on the T Bird’s hard top. Man these sweet little machines were young and sexy and liberating. Most of you can recite a good portion of the lyrics to “Daddy took the T Bird” ( fun, fun, fun)



So The Nike monuments to the Car guy generation needed these two. First came the little vette. The 50s rear end was quite “buzzing bee” like and the side scallops were the shape of wings. This sculptural object easily became an insect like thing, but fast and floating. The “Buzz Around” became Nike #3 with no wheels at all, sort of a hover craft in statue form. The one I did in Cement allowed me to try out staining and the rich patina possible with these materials looks like some African wood from a long used object of fetish. I love it just parked on a black base representing that highway we all longed to ne on.
the first Vett’s. rear end soon gave way to a sharper aerodynamics that stretched them into faster visual forms and they lost the friendlier and more tranquil feel of rout 66. They became power happy and ostentatious as they got bigger.

Then there was the label from a native American spirit that was applied to the Ford answer to the corvette. The logo was all power but the car was more cute. Certain elements of the 57 thunderbird got more aggressive in the second generation. I did a lot od desigh on a kit car done from the 57 T Bird. It was tooled to fit a VW chassis and could be assembled in a snap using the Bug windows and crank down mechanism (but I digress).
The 57 T Bird is more rare because they didn’t sell as well as the 55 and 56. They were a little bigger and the tilted fins more aggressive. For me it was these that made this bird fly, Like tucked jet wings.

and as I began to condense the elements I saw the profile of a spirit bird in those wings, diving on the sole of a car enthusiast longing for his time on the road. I set up to do it like the last few with no cabin features but that unforgettable port hole window and hard top were stunning features that identified this car. Then I tried reducing this element and the profile, to my amazement became an aggressive bird beak, very true to the Thunderbird logo and concept... The canted tight wings sped a diving bird of prey type fuselage In the true spirit of the Indian Lore mixed with machine. “Bird” became a new Nike.

Oddly enough I found volunteers who had vintage cars who told me they would let me mold them for the full sized pieces, and both have slipped away from the initial offer. So no big buzz or Bird yet. I’m still looking for the right car for a one night stand in the plaster booth which would immortalize it as the father of a Nike monument to the Baby Boom generation of car guys. Any Takers out there? I promise I will not even scratch her!

Next time: The foreign invasion / infestation in cars goes Nike.
Thanks as always comments welcome SculptureByTj.com

From Study to tand alone Sculpture

A funny thing happened on the way to designing the model.

I began a layout for the pedestal sized “Boomer’s Nike” and was preparing to model the piece when a friend came by with a sheepish request. It seemed he had this 57 Chevy that he was going to restore in the spring and needed a place to store it for the winter. Holy Schneiky! He had no problem with me pulling molds from it so it was agreed, the Chevy came to my studio. By the spring there was a set of plaster molds of all four corners of the car and details of chrome. These were carefully assembled and laid up in fiberglass to become a full sized sculpture. I got a nice wheel cover, (hub cap in 50’ speak) mold but I wanted a good amount of crush in the tire to indicate weight. This proved to be difficult. Even deflated it takes a lot of weight to squash down a tire. A vice and some pipes made it just right and I got molds of tread and sidewalls from a spare that had never been used , a good early 60s Firestone whitewall.

By summer I was casting a concrete base and the boomer stood seven feet tall. Another friend was getting out of the solid surface counter top business (think Corian) and I bought up his surplus powders and flakes for making castings. Now each piece could have it’s own formula.

There are hours and hours of work to develop a form like this. These times include lots of meditation on what this object is really about. My head spun for months on my teenage years and the meaning of getting my first car, on the adoration of the 57 that I saw in collectors and restorers. My generation has a level of obsession with these machines that is tantamount to worship! We poor resources and attention into this phenomena

Some design friends who saw the Boomer’s Nike made the comment “I could see a whole series of these….” So I began to plan and to consider which cars I should reduce and reconstruct to a goddesses torso, and started hunting for models and toys of classics to do maquette studies. I looked hard at cars and started to think about the their forms and more importantly what these particular designs said about us , and why they had gained their reputations. “Which ones were worthy of Goddess status?”

I so loved constructing something new from the existing classic elements that I had to try a few more. There were many cars from this era that spoke equally strongly.

The row of maquettes grew. http://www.sculpturebytj.com/nikepewterspage

Next time, each car dissected and explored
Thanks,
Tj