“A Day At The Beach”

(or: “Wiggling Towards Entropy”)

Start: Virtual block layout.

I began by building a model with the shapes I would use and where I wanted to position them, including mockup of the site geometry.

With the intention to carve both faces of the glass, I then made a printable, annotated, map of all these elements and the mounting hole locations.

This was to align the material components.

By printing a reverse version of the map, I would have a positional guide for the second carving on the back side of the glass.

Following the map measurements for the front side, the element centers and shape outlines were hand drawn and hand cut on the resist.

Here is a full virtual render of elements.

Carving (by hand, natch!) stage detail…

Face carving complete.

I made a ‘roller’ jig that allowed the glass to move like a wheel while I carved the texture around the edge.

Initial carving complete!

Viewfinder Stainless is cut at the waterjet.

Brass inserts, also cut by waterjet, get fitted, then I blasted the surface before having the text engraved.

12mm aluminum is cut at the waterjet, including holes, and a cleat is welded on to hang it with. Then it gets polished to create a semi-reflective background and mounting plate for the glass.

Meanwhile….

(Fuzzy picture through the heat shows the glass glowing as the kiln lid is lifted, momentarily, during fire down…)

(Back side carving completed)

Viewfinder mounted…

Completed, assembled, and installed in situ.

“A Day At The Beach” ( or “Wiggling Towards Entropy” )

What kinda title is that?

The design is based around a scale version of a previous 60″ sculpture, W A Y F I N D E R . This one being smaller at just 50″ in diameter.

As with W A Y F I N D E R , this tidal pool life is presented as artifice in sparkling relief, a proxy crystalline tribute to nature. At the same time, the center of the metal “viewfinder” lays bare, as metaphoric interlocking gears, the underlying mechanics of the very ecology being sensationalized, ignored, and sacrificed to the ever “forward” trajectory of the human condition, represented here, as in previous works, as the ‘life ring’ – positioning itself much like the onset of an eclipse across this tidal pool.

Although… perhaps the life ring could represent something more helpful…?

I suppose there are many ways to view things…