[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
it all started with fire I was a drawing
and painting major at the University of
Southern Mississippi when one day I
stumbled into the sculpture studio and
it was amazing there were sparks
shooting across the room that was metal
everywhere and you could hear the roar
of a blast furnace in the corner a few
minutes later a couple of guys came out
all dressed in leather and began pouring
molten bronze into molds made out of
sand and I knew sculpture would be my
path I started making large-scale
outdoor works and I continued doing that
through grad school by the end of it had
dozens of works some in countries like
Finland and Latvia then it was time for
me to go out into the world and it was a
scary place for an artist but with a lot
of diligence hard work and some luck I
landed a public art Commission now
public art was a little different from
the art that I’ve been doing before
because there was kind of already an
idea client knew what they wanted the
art to be about I’m thinking this is
great because one of the largest
challenges for me was deciding what idea
was important enough to invest all of
the energy and time and effort it took
to create a large-scale work of art that
part was done it was my task as an
artist to interpret that idea and
translate it into three-dimensional art
this is linkage a commission from the
Carter Development Group in conjunction
with Marta the goal of this work was to
represent how people and communities are
connected through public transit so I
designed this form with these aluminum
plates that weave in and out and these
copper plates that roll up and down so
I’ve taken the idea of public trains and
buses that weave in and out of
neighborhoods
and over a landscape and I’ve translated
that idea into this form public art can
be a powerful tool for community pride
in fact oftentimes community members are
invited to help in the design of the
project this is anchored sale before I
started designing this work for South
Bend Park I wanted to meet some people
in the community because I wanted to
know what was important to them about
their neighborhood and why was it
special some of the things we talked
about were how people in the
neighborhood were deeply rooted and they
kept using that term rooted and so I
decided to implement that into the work
I designed this intricate root system at
the base of the sculpture that’s
interactive and people can hang out
there and climb on the work another
thing we talked about was how the
community was changing and it was
important for them to honor the history
of the community as well as embrace the
future so I designed this kinetic
element at the top of the work with a
granite stone counterweight that weight
represents the heavy historical
significance of the community its
juxtaposed by this shining aluminum sale
the sale cut from aluminum in the shape
of South Bend Park represents the bright
future of the neighborhood these two
elements exist in a delicate balance
physically as well as conceptually let’s
get serious for a minute public art is
fun this is Spider walk commissioned by
the city of Sandy Springs for a playable
art park a park full of interactive
climb above playable sculpture I was
asked to design something that would be
climb about but safe and fun so
naturally for my subject matter
I chose something terrifying I thought
it would be great to start with
something that’s generally considered to
be really scary and present it in a way
that was inviting and colorful sometimes
I get the opportunity to spread the love
of art I had a chance to talk to some
kids about my sculpture and of course
the spider was a big hit it’s critical
to expose people to art because it’s a
powerful tool of inspiration it promotes
open-mindedness and can dissolve the
parameters of conventional thinking
sometimes public art is used to indicate
the significance the historical
significance of a place this is a
commission from the Atlanta BeltLine now
if you don’t know the Atlanta BeltLine
it’s a network of public parks multi-use
trails and transit along a 22 mile
railroad corridor that circles downtown
Atlanta the goal of this this work was
to create a sculpture using actual
railroad steel pulled from the Atlanta
BeltLine which would symbolize the
historical significance of the railroad
and its impact on the development of the
city the question for me was what’s it
going to look like what form will it
take so I started digging through the
history of the Atlanta Railroad and I
found this image of Union Station now
I’m a big fan of classical Greek and
Roman architecture so I was intrigued by
this image right away as I kept digging
around I found this picture of Union
Station as it was being demolished now
this was a striking image for me because
it was as if the architectural signature
of Union Station
was somehow prized it was being allowed
to survive as long as possible so I
wanted the architectural signature that
classical architecture signature of
Union Station to survive through the
piece so I brought it back this is
10,000 pounds of railroad track spikes
anchors and other artifacts forged in a
to a 20-foot 22-foot tall corinthian
column finally the herd this is a work
of public art but it was not a
commissioned I decided to make this work
because I had an idea that I thought was
worth sharing I had an idea that I
thought was worth the time and energy it
took to create a work of art and that
idea is this as human beings we have a
tendency to get really focused in on
things like work social culture material
stuff and before you know it we can’t
see in front of us for very far we’re
like a herd of goats with our heads down
to the ground and that’s all we can see
but this goat reminds us to lift our
head up look around at your world and
enjoy all of the things that it has to
offer especially art thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
it all started with fire I was a drawing
and painting major at the University of
Southern Mississippi when one day I
stumbled into the sculpture studio and
it was amazing there were sparks
shooting across the room that was metal
everywhere and you could hear the roar
of a blast furnace in the corner a few
minutes later a couple of guys came out
all dressed in leather and began pouring
molten bronze into molds made out of
sand and I knew sculpture would be my
path I started making large-scale
outdoor works and I continued doing that
through grad school by the end of it had
dozens of works some in countries like
Finland and Latvia then it was time for
me to go out into the world and it was a
scary place for an artist but with a lot
of diligence hard work and some luck I
landed a public art Commission now
public art was a little different from
the art that I’ve been doing before
because there was kind of already an
idea client knew what they wanted the
art to be about I’m thinking this is
great because one of the largest
challenges for me was deciding what idea
was important enough to invest all of
the energy and time and effort it took
to create a large-scale work of art that
part was done it was my task as an
artist to interpret that idea and
translate it into three-dimensional art
this is linkage a commission from the
Carter Development Group in conjunction
with Marta the goal of this work was to
represent how people and communities are
connected through public transit so I
designed this form with these aluminum
plates that weave in and out and these
copper plates that roll up and down so
I’ve taken the idea of public trains and
buses that weave in and out of
neighborhoods
and over a landscape and I’ve translated
that idea into this form public art can
be a powerful tool for community pride
in fact oftentimes community members are
invited to help in the design of the
project this is anchored sale before I
started designing this work for South
Bend Park I wanted to meet some people
in the community because I wanted to
know what was important to them about
their neighborhood and why was it
special some of the things we talked
about were how people in the
neighborhood were deeply rooted and they
kept using that term rooted and so I
decided to implement that into the work
I designed this intricate root system at
the base of the sculpture that’s
interactive and people can hang out
there and climb on the work another
thing we talked about was how the
community was changing and it was
important for them to honor the history
of the community as well as embrace the
future so I designed this kinetic
element at the top of the work with a
granite stone counterweight that weight
represents the heavy historical
significance of the community its
juxtaposed by this shining aluminum sale
the sale cut from aluminum in the shape
of South Bend Park represents the bright
future of the neighborhood these two
elements exist in a delicate balance
physically as well as conceptually let’s
get serious for a minute public art is
fun this is Spider walk commissioned by
the city of Sandy Springs for a playable
art park a park full of interactive
climb above playable sculpture I was
asked to design something that would be
climb about but safe and fun so
naturally for my subject matter
I chose something terrifying I thought
it would be great to start with
something that’s generally considered to
be really scary and present it in a way
that was inviting and colorful sometimes
I get the opportunity to spread the love
of art I had a chance to talk to some
kids about my sculpture and of course
the spider was a big hit it’s critical
to expose people to art because it’s a
powerful tool of inspiration it promotes
open-mindedness and can dissolve the
parameters of conventional thinking
sometimes public art is used to indicate
the significance the historical
significance of a place this is a
commission from the Atlanta BeltLine now
if you don’t know the Atlanta BeltLine
it’s a network of public parks multi-use
trails and transit along a 22 mile
railroad corridor that circles downtown
Atlanta the goal of this this work was
to create a sculpture using actual
railroad steel pulled from the Atlanta
BeltLine which would symbolize the
historical significance of the railroad
and its impact on the development of the
city the question for me was what’s it
going to look like what form will it
take so I started digging through the
history of the Atlanta Railroad and I
found this image of Union Station now
I’m a big fan of classical Greek and
Roman architecture so I was intrigued by
this image right away as I kept digging
around I found this picture of Union
Station as it was being demolished now
this was a striking image for me because
it was as if the architectural signature
of Union Station
was somehow prized it was being allowed
to survive as long as possible so I
wanted the architectural signature that
classical architecture signature of
Union Station to survive through the
piece so I brought it back this is
10,000 pounds of railroad track spikes
anchors and other artifacts forged in a
to a 20-foot 22-foot tall corinthian
column finally the herd this is a work
of public art but it was not a
commissioned I decided to make this work
because I had an idea that I thought was
worth sharing I had an idea that I
thought was worth the time and energy it
took to create a work of art and that
idea is this as human beings we have a
tendency to get really focused in on
things like work social culture material
stuff and before you know it we can’t
see in front of us for very far we’re
like a herd of goats with our heads down
to the ground and that’s all we can see
but this goat reminds us to lift our
head up look around at your world and
enjoy all of the things that it has to
offer especially art thank you
[Applause]
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