The Mechanical Monkey: 2012

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Leviathan

Made from mostly clay and wood, this piece also uses a small assortment of found materials... including a large amount of wooden furniture casters.

Available

Bulldog

An older piece made from an assortment of casters, brass curtain rods, a forklift part, and a two sided clay head.

I traded this piece for some awesome artwork by the very talented Ryan Abegglen.

Visit his site here: http://www.ryanabegglen.com/

Aside from a single piece of art that I made in a college class, this is the earliest piece of sculpture that I made using an assortment of found materials and hand crafted parts.

I carved the figure, body and animal head from bass wood. Hemp was used for the fur, copper legs and motorcycle springs, a motorcycle fuel line, keys, rivets, nails, and an anchor cut from metal... all attached to the stone base.

I put off selling him as he was to be traded for a piece of custom made furniture. The deal never materialized, so he remains sitting in my studio like a totem to my sculptural beginnings.

Available

The Archangel of the Apocalypse

This is a older piece of work and one of the first of my monkey/chimp driver pieces. It incorporates the use of clay, wood and an assortment of found objects.

Private collection of D. and G. Seybert

The Red Rider

Hand carved wooden head, and an assortment of old found objects.

He received a lot of press in the Tampa area as he was used as a promotional photo for the Gasparilla Art Fair years ago. I sold him just before going to the fair much to the dismay of the fair goers who wanted a look at him in person.

Private collection.

Working Dog (in progress)

I found this old statue one day while digging for treasure. He was in pretty rough shape, covered in muck and several layers of paint. I stripped it down removing almost all of the paint... reshaped some of his body and created a replacement tail.

Once all of the cleaning and repair work was done, I slowly started adding more and more objects. The saddle was the first item. Most everything here is riveted into place. Layer upon layer was added to create depth and a sort of loose narrative.

Now, I am trying to make up my mind if I want to add a figure sitting on the saddle. What do you think?

I've not settled on a title yet either.

The conclusion is not far away!

The Petroleum Scarecrow #2

This piece is currently underway... but should be completed in the next week or so.

I was struggling at first with what sort of legs to use on this piece, as I was hoping to find some found objects to use. I tried an assortment of ideas but settled on cutting some from wood planks. I created a box for the piece to be mounted to and began working out the placement of other found objects and where they would attach.

This piece is around 3.5 feet tall.

The humble beginnings at the workbench.

More photos to come soon!

Currently untitled.

Just waiting for a title on this piece. You may remember the little brass deer from a picture of my scrapyard finds. It has since undergone quite a transformation. Gas mask and etched tattoos now adorn the poor little creature.

Stay tune for additional photos and a title.

As The Crow Flies (completed)

Additional gears were soldered in place, the head was attached and I retired an old garden implement for the tail section. A copper mount was devised and the tail was riveted in place.

The base was created using an old metal tool box and a piece of maple. A single gear and two wrenches were riveted in place on the lid of the box.

I created a brass post to mount the crow to. The crows body can be tilted to allow for different viewing angles while the head remains stationary.

As The Crow Flies (in progress)

This began as an experimental assemblage during a workshop and evolved into someing entirely different.

The first photo shows how it all began using a mix of assorted found objects, parts are held in place using hand made rivets.

The head of the crow was given a feather texture using a material called Sugru, a self setting rubber.

The wings were made from a very old shoe form split in half. Copper and brass were cut and etched and attached.

Here I am laying the piece out to estimate scale and see how it all might work together. At this point I haven't commited to using any of the parts for the body. It really came down to searching for parts that I felt would work best.

The typewriter keys were slightly modified to allow for the wings to be attached.