Showing posts with label Sculpture - Assorted. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sculpture - Assorted. Show all posts

Lens Lamp

 A friend of mine was getting rid of about 20 used/broken cameras, and so I disassembled them and decided to make the weirdest thing I've ever made - a lens lamp.  I don't even know what it means, but it took a long time to make.  The second photo shows the panel that opens to change the inner bulb.  





Lego Crown Graphic Prototype

 Lego "Ideas" are sets that are created by non-Lego employees, which I just recently found out.  Being a life-long Lego fan (mostly space Legos) I wanted to give it a shot, and I went with a 4x5 view camera since I loved doing 4x5 photography for so many years.  I based the prototype off of my camera, so it's to exact scale as can be seen in the photos.  An employee at the Lego store at the Mall of America by us said that the 4x5 camera was a good idea for the Lego Ideas as most people try to submit D/SLRs.  We'll see what happens.  Next I need to order the correct color parts to make a color-correct prototype and count the pieces, etc., to then submit to Lego Ideas.  





סהל של אהבה

The translation of the Hebrew title of this piece is "Prison of Love."  The wooden frame of the piece, made of cedar 4x4s, was built to give a few more inches of height to my dad's lift chair which he used while he was at home during his decline due to ALS (which he passed away from in Sept of 2017).  The frame and the bars are meant to invoke a prison window, and the wires are meant to represent the tension, intricacy, and complexity that is involved while loving someone through a difficult time/situation/etc.

Working as a hospice chaplain, I see family members and friends do this for their loved ones all the time: by making the choice to be a caregiver for someone on hospice often requires that people choose a "prison of love" in order to do so.  This prison that people choose is difficult, but it is also full of beauty as they love those they care deeply for through all the difficulties and challenges that care giving brings.  The 'prison' is true in every sense of the word as many times care giving necessitates that the caregiver either severely limit or completely give up their ability to be away from the care giving location.  This can also be applied to many other life situations, including being a parent to a small child who is still fully dependent.   

In the detail photos below, note that the wires were pulled hard enough that they've pressed into the wood: this was done on purpose as a symbolic representation of the wear and tear that gets put on caregivers bodies both physically and emotionally.  The piece was quite back-breaking to make, and I put such tension on my hands in pulling the wire that despite wearing gloves my hands hurt enough after doing the piece that even running water over them was painful. 

There are some parts of the black wires that are polished silver, and a single red wire running through the piece - these are meant to invoke the beauty of the struggle of love.

This piece was created as a part of the Advent Art Series at Awaken in St. Paul and so has theological meaning as well.  The seven bars and the seven bolts on top of the piece represent completeness and perfection as it does throughout the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and the three bolts on the bottom (see detail below) are meant to symbolize the Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  These three bolts are on the base of the work as the Trinity in Christian theology is the basis for love and creation.  The central word on the piece is "'Immanuel," (which means "God with us") and the text around the piece is Isaiah 53, the Suffering Servant passages which Christian theologians believe point to Jesus as that servant, come to this world in love to give himself as a sacrifice for all.  

The piece is 30" x 30".