Saturday, August 22, 2009 - Red Rock, East Chatham NY

Stainless steel art series #3 - Berry Lamp 2, ca. mid 1990's, photographed March 18, 2001

About fifteen years ago I started playing around bending wire into bird, animal, and human figures and some inanimate figures as well. Back in April I was showing some of them to Kate and with her encouragement we spent a sunny morning photographing them. I've presented a few of those images in a series here and now I'm adding some images of a few pieces I didn't have with me that take my art in some new directions using stainless steel wire and sheet.

Here we're seeing a transition toward larger pieces using wound wire "springs" and stamped metal.

Night camp

On my property off Less Traveled Road - The Home Place, Red Rock, East Chatham NY

I used to camp in a few locations on what little I had left of the family farm
- In the driveway by the house
- Across the road where the barn once stood
- On the 20 acre piece off Less Traveled Road
Now, with the kind support of the friends who now own the place, I camp across the road where the barn once stood.
Verizon cell phone service - Terrible, barely usable with an amplifier
Verizon EVDO service - Terrible, barely usable with an amplifier
Find other references to Home Place
List the nights I've camped here
Check the weather here

Skepticism is Helpful

If you want to notice things that seem wrong, you'll find a degree of skepticism helpful. I take it as an axiom that we're only achieving 1% of what we could. This helps counteract the rule that gets beaten into our heads as children: that things are the way they are because that is how things have to be. For example, everyone I've talked to while writing this essay felt the same about English classes-- that the whole process seemed pointless. But none of us had the balls at the time to hypothesize that it was, in fact, all a mistake. We all thought there was just something we weren't getting.

The Age of the Essay, Paul Graham, September 2004

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