Makkeweks Progress

The Makkeweks sea monster sculpture upside down, roughed out in stack-laminated cork No matter the depth of scientific knowledge there will always be monsters. You don’t have to look very hard to find them. Politics, industry and information technology are a few obvious breeding grounds. I’ve been thinking a lot about monsters as I begin […]

Mostri di Roma

Looking up the Tevere towards Islola Tiburina Water flows through Rome more visibly than time. It is an almost magical presence here, an animating force that makes the Eternal City feel alive in the present. Water streams constantly from hundreds of street corner taps, cold and delicious. Some still flows over aqueducts from the Colli […]

Sea Monsters on my mind

The depiction of sea monsters is as old as seafaring. Only the shape, size and imagined intention of the monster changes over time, generally in direct relation to what is being explored and whatever constitutes the boundaries of current knowledge. Sea monsters represent the unknown, simultaneously warding off and goading the curious-minded. Historically, sea monsters […]

Proof of Concept

Whether the intended outcome is a new sculpture, furniture design or product idea, I often begin the ‘Proof of Concept’ phase with a stroll through the salvage yards. My absolute favorite is Maselli & Sons in Petaluma, CA. With over seven acres of neatly organized machine parts, scrap metal, salvaged tools, motors and hardware, it’s […]

Spinnradl

Concept rendering of Spinnradl in situ on Pendleton Street in Cincinnati Ene presented our concept for a series of public street sculptures to the key stakeholders in the City of Cincinnati yesterday. Our ‘Spinnradl’ concept was very enthusiastically received and we have the go-ahead to proceed with a final design. Here is a little archive […]

Research Topics du Jour

  One of the challenges and pleasures of developing site specific, public sculpture is following several threads of research simultaneously and trying to find unexpected connections that make sense. Here is a sampling of some topics we are researching as we design a series of kinetic sculptures for the Pendleton neighborhood of Cincinnati:   1. […]

The Sory Behind ‘The Guardian’

‘The Guardian’ by Frederic Fierstein, 1985, at the foot of the Berkeley Pier. I’ve always admired the huge concrete sculpture depicting an archer/warrior seated on a mysterious creature at the foot of the Berkeley Pier. A genuine Berkeley landmark, ‘The Guardian’, made by Frederic Fierstein and a small group of collaborators in the mid-eighties, functions […]