Acrylic Bar
Recently I have been using arrays of acrylic bar as an overlay to create a kinetic palette for small, shallow-framed 3D sculptures. The refraction from the bars and the textured materials behind them create subtly shifting images.
Orange Purple Refractory
This piece is a box whose front surface is an array of clear acrylic rods. The back panel is painted in an arrangement of triangles and quadrilaterals. The sides of the box are translucent. colored acrylic sheet sides to admit light, The rods refract and fracture the back panel image. Moving laterally as you view the pieces causes apparent movement of the image, shuffling of its geometry, and a shift in the dominant color palette. This was inspired in part by the kinetic panels of Carlos Cruz-Diez. 18x30x6".
Blue Green Refractory
This piece is similar in construction and behavior to the Orange Purple Refractory. The background collage pattern is a tessellation of identically shaped, four-sided wedges of various cool hues. The acrylic bars give each wedge of color a three-dimensional form whose shape and colors shift with the viewer's movements. 25x37x6". 2021
Red Yellow Refractory
Little Refractories
The construction of these is similar to the larger pieces, but these are 11x14 and 12 x 12 respectively.
ORGB Quartet
The acrylic bars whose arrays form the front surfaces each are linear magnifying glasses. Tiny dots of color, printing artifacts of the card stock used for background color, are magnified through the acrylic and appear as tiny striations. Everything fractures and shifts as the viewer moves laterally.
Small Pieces
Acrylic, Steel, and Wood
Double Rainbow -- Two Views. Color appears in the bars only when viewed from the front. From the side, the bars refract the back plane of steel and painted wood.
Septilumina: Seven thick acrylic bars are mounted in front of two layers of perforated metal, internally lit around the perimeter. The metal layers create a kinetic moire patter. The bars refract the perforation pattern, with the three middle bars interacting with one another.
Acrylic and Aluminum
Aglow, the piece on the left, has bars of colored acrylic set into an aluminum scaffold. Bars, the piece on the right, has similar construction, but the colors are added to clear acrylic. When viewed from the left, all the bars appear to be blue, and from the right, all green.
Mandalas
My mandala sculptures employ reflective materials and various kinds of patterned or colored materials, usually wire or glass.
Click on any photo for an expanded image.
Click on any photo for an expanded image.
Whirling Mandala
A woven wire basked is mounted on a mirror. In its center is a composition of four layered glass pieces, including a lamp shade, two candle holders, and a section of a former halogen light bulb with a refracting cone center. The woven wire of the basked spirals gently, and its reflection sets up a wonderful moire effect that appears to whirl around the center when the viewer moves from side to side.
Other mandalas shown below are constructed from various materials mounted within stainless steel.
Other mandalas shown below are constructed from various materials mounted within stainless steel.
Pick a Number |
Pick a Number is built around the tray from a Sony 400-CD console changer. It is backed by two strands of LED lights, nested within a repurposed metal lamp shade. In the center two pieces of faceted glass throw light from behind out to the viewer. Overlapping triangles of light cast through the slots of the tray eerily disappear when viewed from an angle.
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Miscellaneous Adventures
Artistic exploration can involve both delving and dabbling. Here are some dabbles. Click any photo for an enlarged image.