Work on the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park Hawk Sculpture for El Paso, TX is nearing completion. Below are photos of the stainless steel hawk sculpture with its final oxide patina, the corten steel tree sculpture with a rust finish, and the five related signs that will be placed in different areas of the parks, just prior to getting their rusted finish. The bird sculpture will be mounted at the top of the tree, and the signs will receive graphics that describe the flora and fauna of the park.

The public art for the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park is coming along nicely. The stainless steel hawk will eventually get a special patina that will lend it the bronze-like tones of the animal sculptures I made for the Denver Zoo. Here’s a couple of photos of the hawk in its current state:

The next big public art piece I’m working on is a Harris hawk for the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park in El Paso, TX. This photo shows the stainless steel wings for that sculpture, currently in progress. As shown here, the wing span is almost eleven feet wide.

Here’s a video showing the progress on the wing for a Harris Hawk sculpture for the Rio Bosque Wetlands Project in El Paso, TX. The fabrication of this stainless steel and corten public art sculpture is going smoothly and the installation is currently scheduled to happen in about four months. Stay tuned for more progress pics and video!

Here’s a quick look at the very beginnings of the next sculpture in progress…

See the previous blog post for the original drawing of this sculpture, and the full description of the meaning of the work. After three weeks, working by myself (outdoors in a field, no less) with only help to lift and move the heavy parts, I’m exhausted, but quite proud of this sculpture created for the Icheon International Sculpture Symposium. Weighing in at nearly two tons, this sanded and mirror-polished stainless steel public art is nearly nineteen feet long, almost twelve feet tall, and five feet deep. The final landscaping won’t be in place for some time, and these photos were taken right after installing it in the dirt — but imagine a little grass around it and a path through the middle of the two vertical slabs, and you get the idea. It was an amazing adventure and tested my skills at working with the most minimal amount of tools. And here it is, complete. I present to you, Transition:

For those wondering about the two-ton stainless steel sculpture I’ll be making here for the next three weeks at the Icheon International Sculpture Symposium, here is the rendering, along with the text description below it. Also, here is the website for the symposium: Icheon International Sculpture Symposium, Korea (edit: after symposium, link changed to updated page for 2011 symposium)

We are always in transition; from one breath to another, each heartbeat to the next – we are transitioning from our past experience to who we are now and who we would like to be.

This sculpture, titled TRANSITION, is the expressed reminder of that reality. Its overall shape implies a gateway: a universal marking of transition from one place to another, from one choice or moment into the next. The horizontal crosspiece hearkens to ancient flint stone carvings shaped by man, while the vertical support pieces are clean, modern and monolithic – representational of the moment that present transitions to past.

TRANSITION symbolizes the concept of bringing awareness to each unique moment of time. I have chosen to offset the horizontal crosspiece to bring visual focus to a specific point at the gateway. This choice visually pulls the viewer in to contemplate the complex and multifaceted surface at the gateway entry, symbolic of the moment of transition. The gateway entry point is slightly smaller than an average door entry width, alluding to the concept that the difficult moments or choices in life are not passed through with great ease.

The 9/11 Memorial I created got a good bit of press, here’s a round-up of a few of the sites covering the sculpture:

Los Angeles Times (LA Times)

Colossal (art/design blog)

DesignBoom (design blog)

Notcot.org (art/design) blog

Complex (culture blog)

Buzzaurus (culture blog)

Pasadena Star News

CBS (9/11 Special)

Dedication of 9/11 Memorial on 9/11/2011 in Rosemead, CA

LA Times article

The second hand is complete, and that means we can lower the WTC I-beam into place on this sculpture now. Here is a time-lapse video of that process: first craning the 500-pound I-beam into the hands, then welding it directly to the hand sculptures for a permanent attachment.

LA Times article