Dillon Sculpture Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Public sculpture for Charlotte NC fire house #39. 26' tall, steel and stainless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNewman Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 I really like your kinetic sculptures Danger. Movement just adds so much to them. I have been wondering since I saw one of the other sculptures you posted which seemed to have moving parts come closer to the ground do you worry about people getting hurt by moving parts. I would imagine there is a fair bit of inertia in some of those pieces. I have thought about building some large simple exposed clockworks but I worry about little fingers and liability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 thats beautiful danger!! i love it! it looks completely natural in motion. thats very cool respect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 Thanks Beth, John, Up and Away is on loan to Tennessee river park in Chattanooga. I added a small counterweight to bring the point up and out of reach of people, becoming a wind activated sculpture. I prefer the location of the point at rest about 80" of the ground, this way a person can interact with its movement, if you know how to give it a good whirl 1000# rotates freely for several minutes. My interest is the viewers experience with the physical nature of a simple point of balance. I am sure it is safer than hurtling down a two lane highway at 70 mph in a Prius, That should just be wrong anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benbini Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Cool! I like kinetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragons lair Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Careful Mike someone might think it's a firebug. grin Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Public sculpture for Charlotte NC fire house #39. 26' tall, steel and stainless. A fine Camero it is... does the main body balance on a captured point or does it have some sort of CV or U joint affair? Is this a peice that you had to "Win" by submitting scale models and renderings and what not or was it a commission? I have always wanted to do large scale public art and have always been scared of the bureaucracy and politics involved.. At least in Washington its a daunting task and it seems like the "art" people have a major advantage in landing public money.. What seems to usually happen is some "artist" draws up a picture and has a small model built that is submitted to a board... they make there choice then the "artist" pays one of us metal workers to construct and install the thing for a fraction of the money awarded... I have a good friend who works with one of these "artist" people and has built several very cool installations.... For which he gets zero credit of coarse since he "only" built it.... My issue is my "art" if you want to call it that is something that kind of morphs into being during construction... I don't have the ability to sit down with a pad and draw at a level that warrants doing so ( I can usually build the real thing in the time it would take to draw ) Anyway I would be real interested to know the proses behind your work and how you have gone about perusing these kinds of projects... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 Larry, Three cam follower bearings, one horizontal axis and two vertical. I machined the housings from aluminum. I applied to a RFQ and was one of three pick to make a proposal. It was a pretty involved job for me, logistics, paperwork bla bla. Your portfolio is your biggest asset, but you also have to communicate your ideas on paper, not necessarily drawings, just give them an idea of what you want to do. Start small and local, if they know who you are they are more likely to award you the job. There are many call for artist in the Seattle area and they have a thriving art community. If this is your ambition you should be able to land one, just be prepared for many rejections. Lynn Basa wrote a very informative book on the process "The Artist Guide to Public Art" Personally I'd rather just put the stuff in my yard but, I gotta feed the children and moma needs a new pair of shoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chyancarrek Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 Larry, I work for a sculptor who has a large number of public placements ( Google James Lee Hansen) 60 years ago he built his own foundry and does all the work from concept to placement for the exact reasons you state. He believes "I need to own every point of the physicality of the work - not just the vision" At 84 y/o he still works in his studio every day living up to that standard. Do you know anyone who has the knack and willingness to assist you with the prep of drawings and other presentation materials? That might be a good collaborative solution to building a package that effectively communicates the concepts to a committee Michael is absolutely right, it's all about perseverance and having a thick enough skin to keep trying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 Larry, I work for a sculptor who has a large number of public placements ( Google James Lee Hansen) 60 years ago he built his own foundry and does all the work from concept to placement for the exact reasons you state. He believes "I need to own every point of the physicality of the work - not just the vision" At 84 y/o he still works in his studio every day living up to that standard. Do you know anyone who has the knack and willingness to assist you with the prep of drawings and other presentation materials? That might be a good collaborative solution to building a package that effectively communicates the concepts to a committee Michael is absolutely right, it's all about perseverance and having a thick enough skin to keep trying. Actuality I do... I have done quite a bit of metal work for a fellow that is a nationally known mural painter and also a Industrial Design teacher at a local collage... He has expressed interest in helping me ... Mmmm..... I have kind of let some of those ambitions slide simply due to paying the bills being a priority... I need to make some time to work on some inspired stuff... Thanks for the insight And Dillon I would really like to see a shot of the mechanism..... I am trying to imagine the placement of the follower bearings allowing that sort of free movement and cant quite get my head around it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 Danger, That's an active looking piece. Now how about having it breath fire too. I still think you and Monster metal need to do a colaborative piece for poops and giggles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Browne Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 Mike- Nice bird! Heavy things have such a cool, slow, solid, powerful flow of movement to them...I would also like to see a shot of the bearing system you devised. -DB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 The follower bearings have high side load conditions, I used a through bolt bearing instead, way over built for the weight. The top was changed as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Browne Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 The follower bearings have high side load conditions, I used a through bolt bearing instead, way over built for the weight. The top was changed as well. Mike, thanks for posting the pictures. That is a really clean implementation. Stuff like that really sucks up time in the shop for me. I'm not always the brightest bulb in the string when it comes to working out those types of details. I design and redesign and agonize based on all sorts of doomsday scenarios...If I was more scientific and less artistic, I could just trust the math. :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNewman Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 It was up and away that I saw and in your earlier video it looked like if you were not paying attention and were standing in the wrong spot you could get a good thump. So I guess your counterweight has solved that issue. Our current nanny state society and over litigious lawyers have made things like this something I worry about. It probably comes from my time working in the ski industry where I saw people do stupid things get hurt and sue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 It was up and away that I saw and in your earlier video it looked like if you were not paying attention and were standing in the wrong spot you could get a good thump. So I guess your counterweight has solved that issue. Our current nanny state society and over litigious lawyers have made things like this something I worry about. It probably comes from my time working in the ski industry where I saw people do stupid things get hurt and sue. Its really sad that we are so sue happy as a culture... I had the opportunity to do some really cool work... Building a bunch of musical play ground equipment for a local public school... Huge xylophones and swinging rain sticks... teeter totters with clicker wheels... lots of really neat things... I was doing much of the work gratis and put out a call to members of the Seattle MetalHeads, one of the groups I belong to.. One of them ask about liability and so I called my insurance guy to see what he thought... Is answer was really simple... He ask "what is the probability that at some point a child will get hurt on something you built" I said 100%, they are kids on a playground, at some point one will get hurt... End of discussion... I couldnt do it... How screwed up is the world that a someone like us cant work virtually for free to build playground equipment for kids because of liability Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 The follower bearings have high side load conditions, I used a through bolt bearing instead, way over built for the weight. The top was changed as well. Thanks man... That is super clean.. Nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted January 23, 2010 Author Share Posted January 23, 2010 It was up and away that I saw and in your earlier video it looked like if you were not paying attention and were standing in the wrong spot you could get a good thump. So I guess your counterweight has solved that issue. Our current nanny state society and over litigious lawyers have made things like this something I worry about. It probably comes from my time working in the ski industry where I saw people do stupid things get hurt and sue. Yep, I agree people are stupid. I call it Danger. To bad some people don't enjoy it as much as others. Its really not so bad, it moves so slow, it wouldn't be a problem unless you were already incapacitated. I read about an artist who had built a working guillotine, an insurance company bought it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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