The Mechanical Floor Sculpture is an extension of the table size mechanical sculptures. The basic idea is the same. The sculpture is about the sculpture and not mechanics. I'm not hiding the mechanical, but I'm not emphasizing it either. Clever, humorous, and amazing are also not a part of these sculptures. I started each idea with interesting shapes and then figured out how to make parts move with viewer involvement.
On my trip to Alaska this summer I came up with 58 designs and I'm sure I'll make more. Each idea featured shape over mechanical and for storage and shipping purposes, I'm keeping the size in a 3' x 3' x 6' format. No special material is going to be featured either. Whatever I need to make the shape, part or whatever, will be used. In the first mechanical floor sculpture I used, quilting, leather, welded aluminum and painted wood, with brass fittings.
These sculptures are fine art (see definition) and are non objective or not derived from anything specific which would make them abstract. I have other fine art sculptures that do that.
The most difficult decision when I started designing was what to do with the crank, petal, push stick or whatever was necessary for the viewer to use to make it move. I have thought about this quite a bit and have decided the mechanics such as crank, chain, pushrods, sprockets, and so on will be visible but not and essential visual element. I also did not want the viewer to stoop over too much to turn a crank, so many of the designs have the crank and gears raised on a post. I decided not to make this a part of the sculpture, only to cover and refine so it isn't too distracting. This means gears, cotter keys, bearings, and chain or exposed, but not obvious. This is a difficult distinction to make.
One key element is that it has to look good from all sides when it is not moving. The downside to viewer operated sculpture is that the viewer only sees it from one point when turning the crank. The viewer needs someone else to turn the crank so they can walk around it and watch it move. These sculptures require group viewing.
I have never like putting titles on my work so I am numbering these sculptures. The numbers correspond to the date and order in which I worked out the design, but will be made in any order.
