Making Force of Nature: Generative
My work starts with an idea that I have explored in scale model form. Often I use plasticine clay for the models because I can alter them at will. On a few lucky occasions I have found something in nature that serves as the model with only slight modifications. This happened with Force of Nature: Generative. I liked the way a dried seed pod that I had collected curled up in a deeply-veined sculptural loop and used that as a basic working model. The form suggested to me the power of nature to change and to give life.
I like to start the larger pieces in Marble, Colorado where I attend the Marble/Marble Symposium each year. There I work with white Yule marble from the local quarry and can get help when I need it from the wonderful symposium staff.
After carefully considering the scale I wanted to make the piece, I had a block of marble cut to size. Because my desired form was so open and airy, I had three small pieces cut off the larger block. The staff at Marble/Marble is able to do this with their water-fed diamond chain saw, saving a lot of time and stone.
After smoothing out the roughest areas, I sketched out the form on the stone with crayon and worked on finding the high and low points. It’s best to begin by cutting flat planes from high point to high point. The flat planes get gradually smaller and smaller and a round form emerges. By the end of the week in Colorado, I was ready to start cutting the center hole and had the piece shipped home.
At home in my studio I started the center hole first with saw cuts and chiseling and then by grinding and using the core drill on the deepest parts. The form slowly emerged over the course of several months, after much cutting and grinding and turning the piece over several times.
The turning is required to get to difficult areas, to evaluate what you are doing and to create the holes for the mounting pins. Once I finally had a smooth, circular form, I marked out the ridge lines with red crayon and began carving the recesses with a toothed chisel on the air hammer. The chisel marks were smoothed out and the recesses made deeper with die grinders, greenstone, and curved rasps.
In order to finish it in a secure upright position, I pinned the piece on a cement block in the studio. The final finishing is usually all done by hand, but especially so with this very organic and curvilinear piece. I mostly use flexible diamond pads for this task.
Lastly, using a template I core-drilled two holes for mounting pins in the rough-hewn granite base bought at a local stone yard and mounted Force of Nature: Generative on its base.
