Archive for May, 2009

Bunnies Marked Down

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

I picked up these bunnies today along with some other goodies at a local shop in Waltham Massachusetts. What ever are they clutching in their little paws? Look forward to seeing them in some new pieces.

bunnies marked down

bunnies marked down

Here’s a photo of my most recent small work “King Oliver” it’s the finished configuration of the mechanism from the previous post. I love the way this one came out, everything interacts beautifully, a very solid little piece, worth the reworking I did on the wooden handle.

King Oliver

King Oliver

Finally, speaking of “little” my next challenge is tiny! I’m scaling this one down using .0625 piano wire for the crank. The watch base from a few posts back fits perfectly for this one along with the gears which have been retrofitted to the handle.

tiny

tiny

If I keep going like this, soon I’ll be able to carry everything to a show in a single suitcase.

Posted in Work in progress, materials and processes | 3 Comments »

Spot the Dog

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Last week was a whirl wind of openings and screenings. If I see any more pita bread and hummus I’m going to be sick! Here’s a photo of the trailer on screen from the Boston LGBT Film Festival.

trailer on screen

trailer on screen

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on some interesting animation experiments and plowing away on small Mechanical Confections. Here’s one from the workbench last week.

at the start

at the start

Take a look at the video below and note some of the changes. Yesterday I ended up cracking the wood handle, replaced it and then decided on a new base. The old one ( made from an alarm clock ) was pretty neat but a bit wobbly. In the end I decided on something more solid. I’m happy with the result, it’s more substantial and should hold up to years of enjoyment.

BTW, Frida, my canine companion is under the workbench.

Posted in Work in progress, animation | 1 Comment »

The Reach

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

This piece is based on an interesting intermittent mechanism from Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements by Henry Brown, still one of my favorite books when looking for an interesting mechanism.

number 88

number 88

I often think of this process as a painter would when selecting a palette of colors, the mechanism is a starting point and extends the range of possibilities. Here’s a video:

The work is becoming smaller. I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about scale, part of this is practical; I’ve often noticed that when an artist is financially successful, often her work will become much larger. It comes from being able to rent out larger work space. In my case, I’m going in the opposite direction, planning in the fall to move to a smaller ( but very nice ) space, about 1/2 the size of my current one ( and 1/2 the cost ) I’ll be creating smaller work. Rather than seeing this as a liability, I’m excited about some of the possibilities!

The Reach

The Reach

Posted in News | 2 Comments »