a multi-disciplinary dialog
Nice weather, a substantial amount of basic material, a collection of experimental artifacts and a weed burner led to these objects. It boils down to the discovery that, sufficiently heated, acrylic plastic will deform and and fuse together, one item to another.
In this instance I had some acrylic cutouts for a project that wasn’t working out. I melted them together with the result that a draped effect emerged with an enrichment of colors and surfaces. Roughly three feet across.
It seems that I am the only person who wants to use this utility. Allow me, then, to add a few more things that I have been working on.
One might refer to these items as baked goods as they represent the application of fire to one form or another of plastic. The first image began as a sheet of expanded polystyrene that was scored with a knife and scorched with a propane weed burner. This process opened the score lines and created checkered patterns which guided my application of paint and varnish.
I am trying this summer to simplify my productive activities without too much success.
I’m swimming in notions about how to create visual effects, whereas I should be advancing messages. The kit is there, now for more of a narrative.
On the one hand the chandeliers are happy being themselves: it’s the paint application technique that I’ve come up with that’s causing trouble. It produces results easily but, for now somewhat too randomly. I’m trying to harness it’s propensity for doing its own thing by finding things for it to do. Things that tend to be rendered in stone is one approach that I am playing with.
In this instance I have used black, white and green paint. The result I’m getting reminds me of sections of metamorphic rock. The technique is simple, but I’ll leave it to you to guess how it’s done.
These are some pending objects.
I have been working on plastic chandeliers for the last while. This is a close up of one composed of clear yellow acrylic and mirrored rhombs. more… »
After having invested heavily in plastic as a medium for my chains, I am temporarily reverting to wood.
In answer to some real physical issues and intrigued by the visual possibilities, I have been experimenting with plastic as a medium for making chains. Acrylic plastic is tough and I have found that it stands up well to the jostling to which these chains tend to be subjected.
As a matter of aesthetic choice I have tended to make the chain links rectangular and with flat sides – a design that is also easily fabricated. In some instances I have made chains using opaque plastic in available colors and finishes. But more I have customized clear stock with a number of different results.
The first image shows a simple assemblage of links whose colors and textures are derived from interference paints which I squeeze between clear sheets, which are then pulled apart. Once dry, these sheets are glued to a wooden framework.
