Spiral River


Louise was able to work on the Mosaic Spiral in the glory of the early Autumn Vermont weather. Last weekend when I cut the granite, we were unsure of the proper stuff to use for the Mosaic infill, but over the week, the idea of using brown fish tank pebbles came out on the top of choices. The spiral feels like a flowing river. Spirals are powerful and evocative as archetypes, but I couldn't give you an interpretation that didn't sound like bullshit. Guess I'll never be an art critic or theorist....a necessary precondition for success in the Age of the Conceptual.

Posted by Bennett at 9:13 PM EDT

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Vermont Spiral


While in Vermont for a construction weekend,we did use Sunday morning to start a mosaic collaboration. I envisioned a concave dish carved into the face of this rock while we were transcending fear shingling the main roof last year. Louise added the request for a spiral. I did the cutting with the diamond grinder, but we had to pack out before any contrasting material could be grouted into the channel. I would venture to guess it will still be there next week, when we return.

Posted by Bennett at 8:19 AM EDT

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Sneak Preview: Double Bass Volute


It has been part of the intent of our mosaic collaboration to reexamine with sculptural mosaic, forms handed down through history which are the product of the woodcarvers art. If our present culture has any support for the continuation of this art/craft, its locus eludes me. In the spirit of post-modern irony it seems best to celebrate forms indigenous to woodcarving by translating them into mosaic. See them again for the first time. We are constantly on the lookout. While waiting for Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck to walk onstage at Mass MoCA, the image of a fiddlehead volute popped into my head. Here's a sneak preview. This piece will depart from the strict form of the double bass head, but then again, so does Edgar Meyer's.

Sign of the Times



Hi Everybhody.

We have Mike Langlie to thank for the graphics design of this sign (yipyop.com or if you prefer toy piano music twink.net). I did the logo while still an undergraduate at Wesleyan. The lettering was incised with an 1/8 inch router bit, freehand, and then cleaned up with woodcarving gouges. Louise worked out the color progression and did the glass mosaic. We hung it at the edge of our property which faces the public playing field.

Posted by Bennett at 1:20 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 12 May 2004 8:15 PM EDT

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Leg on a Base


One more shot of the "Leg to Stand On" because it finally has a base to stand on. The top octagonal plinth rotates on lazy susan bearings for ease of viewing. This piece will be on display over the summer of 2004 at Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York, as part of their annual Sculpture Exhibit. It is always a worthwhile show.

Mosaic Commission




The collaborative team of Louise and Bennett Blackburn has completed their first mosaic commission! Okay, Okay, it was a request by son Barak for a stoveside countertop that would turn a useless 13 inch void next to the range into a heat-proof surface. Louise did the mosaic from broken tile in stock Home Despot colors (cant wait till we special order some really vibrant colors). The plywood slab was actually the sink cutout from the Vermont camp kitchen.....ah the virtues of recycling..... and the legs were a simple mortise and tenon structure of mahogany.

Also included is a shot of a very early mosaic collaboration done out of piece of Vermont quartzite. Louise thought it should be presented as a pendant, so I made a steel hanging frame, which was drilled into the stone and covered with hammered lead, and recently we hung the piece from two trees with chain. It swings slightly in the wind. It hangs at the edge of our property next to a town park that has a jogging/walking/rollerblading track around the perimeter. We keep changing the sculptures which are shared with the aerobic pubilc. Our best to all of you....BSB

Posted by Bennett at 10:24 AM EDT

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Grouted Leg


Here are a couple of pix of the "Leg to Stand On" with the grout completed and the oil on the cherry refreshed.

Posted by Bennett at 10:00 AM EDT

Updated: Friday, 23 April 2004 10:04 AM EDT

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Easter Lillies




Dearly Beloved:

In a wonderful epiphany that came to Louise while working on the green mosaic acanthus field, the lillies with volutes mutated from the planned green to opalescant, and a foliage detail became a flower. They in fact became Easter Lillies, as the completed mosaic first saw the light of day today, Easter Morning, 2004 when these pix were caught. Louise did a very long day yesterday, completing the garnet/starburst/flower about 10:45pm Saturday.

This present series of mosaic collaborations can be thought of as a dialogue between multiple imaginations and historic form, which is seen anew through sculptural interpretation. The change of scale and mutation of ornamentation from carved wood to mosaic glass supported by a three dimensional carved subsurface renews the perception of a familiar presence.

The mosaic has yet to be grouted, cleaned , and the whole piece finish oiled......but that allows for something yet to look foward to.

Our best to all this joyous day......Bennett and Louise

Posted by Bennett at 12:20 PM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 11 April 2004 12:34 PM EDT

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Sneak Preview/ A Leg to Stand On




Oh yes.....we have been busy, so I enclose a sneak preview of the next mosaic collaboration...."A Leg to Stand On." Do you have one? The carving stands about four and a half feet and is done from cherry. The relief on the thigh of the leg will enclose a green mosaic interpretation of the acanthus leaf embellishment typical of ball and claw foot legs. Extracted from the context of furniture, the form becomes a very strange presence: a bizaare convention.

Mosaic Horns


Greetings

We continue our collaborative adventures in mosaics on curved surfaces. This piece arrived in an unfolding sequence; the walnut curve with the inner surface covered with mosaic presented itself to the minds eye first.... an archetype: the sacred horns of ancient Crete, and flame. The volutes of red mosaic continued the sense of abstracted fire, and the black mosaic provided the field/figure dialogue. The turned base, also of walnut, grew in the imagination as a natural extention of the form. The circular plinth on which the horns sit fits over the shaft and rotates with lazy susan ball bearing hardware.

The piece doen't feel like a sculpture on a pedestal, but rather like a single integrated form.