Stopping time…

Scientists, land developers, farmers and I battle with Mother Nature.  We all do on some level.

Early on when creating metal sculpture, I attempted to preserve the scrolling texture and the organic feel metal has after forging and forming.  I wanted to protect the clean deep hammer marks, the wrinkle in the bend and the abstract patterns from my 25 pound metal grinder.  It’s a challenge.

Finished steel is the end result of a process.  Even raw off the shelf, it’s still a manufactured product. Rust, once my nemesis, now my friend, is the action of steel regressing to its original natural state.   I don’t think the process can fully be inhibited…especially if you desire a natural “metal” look.  The same really applies to wood as well.  It’s like trying to stop time.

I find great satisfaction in combining stone and metal with my work.  As a result, I’m a rock junkie.  I’m constantly eyeballing stone on country roads, highways, weddings, funerals and backyard barbeques.   On a recent stone hunt, I found a magnificent collection of rock unlike anything I’ve discovered before.  After trekking 10x times my weight in stone, exhausted and trying to put my arms back in their sockets, I found the most beautiful specimen of Mother Earth.  It’s so outrageously breathtaking that it caused me to reflect on an ugly but real phrase….something like “ambition exceeding talent”   No artist’s talent  can compete with Mother Nature.

So, alone this rock stands…for me.  Not to be incorporated in a sculpture or altered in any way.  When my forearms ache from drilling, my back from lifting or when my brain feels bankrupt, it’s my God I talk to, confide in and yes, for a moment, it stops time.