VCU Department of
Sculpture and Extended Media
January 16, 2007

To: Mr. Chris and Mr. Henry:

Gentlemen:
I enjoyed reading your letter. I applaud the thoroughness of your research efforts. Trying to explain sculpture is sort of like trying to explain the taste of an apple. Sculpture is a discipline in art that has to do (most of the time) with the three-dimensional expression of ideas. Unlike all other art disciplines (like painting, design and crafts), sculpture has no material or format limitations. In other words, if you are a sculptor, you have at your disposal any existing material, from stainless steel to peanut butter. At the turn of the last century sculptors decided that space was also a material. Unlike painting which has rather fixed two-dimensional formats, either square/rectangular or shaped, sculpture has no prescribed format, genre, or profile. The silhouette of a sculpture can look like anything imaginable: automobiles in a line buried nose down in the earth, an orange curtain across a canyon, a room full of one meter long bronze bars, trees bent and grown in geometric configurations, a spiral jetty in the Salt Lake, an electric machine that tears itself apart, a person doing bench presses with a barbell made of two televisions sets which show him bench pressing the TV barbell. Of course there are traditional subjects that were most popular prior to l900. They are the figure, still life, and landscape. Sculptors are still mystified by these traditional modes of expression and continue to examine them.

The invention of the camera made it unnecessary for artists to concentrate on duplicating nature. They were free to examine the more abstract aspects of image invention. In the mid to late parts of the last century there was much debate concerning the merits of abstract art. Some artists think that all art is abstract, even photographs. They say the camera cannot see as the human eye sees. This notion of abstraction gives the artist great latitude in concocting images. Cartoons are great examples of abstracted figures. Muffler-men you see in front of auto repair shops are other examples of abstracted images. There are many more.

The industrial revolution changed the world for artists because it created surplus items, scrap materials, and throw-aways. Artists naturally began to use “found objects” as parts of their sculptures. The world wars and space program have provided sculptors with new processes like welding and explosion forming, and materials like aluminum, titanium and composites like resin impregnated wood. So you see that sculptors respond to social/technological change almost automatically.

Now sculptors are greatly intrigued with the technological revolution. The interfacing of electronic technology with mechanical systems has made robotics a new and exciting area that sculptors are investigating. Image scanners and instant prototyping machines are sculptors’ tools as well as the personal computer and video camera.

No one can predict what tomorrow’s sculpture will look like. All we know is that it will not look like what we see today, it will be mysterious, and we will have a difficult time understanding it. Most folks want art to be easy to read and have great entertainment value. This is not the intention of most sculptors. Most sculptors want to make you think about what you see, to figure things out, to fill in the blank, to solve the riddle, to examine your feelings, etc. So you must pay attention to the sculptures that maybe you don’t like, the ones that challenge your ability to accept them. The world of sculpture is a wonderful and very complex universe.

You fellows may want to share this letter with your teacher who may be of some help with decoding the technical terms. I hope I have been of some assistance and have helped extend your understanding of the field of sculpture. I do admire intellectual curiosity more than almost anything. You two young men are top of the line.

Good Luck,

Lester Van Winkle, Professor Emeritus
Department of Sculpture and Extended Media
School of the Arts
Virginia Commonwealth University

Lester helped me belive in myself. I was in such awe of him and his ability.

One day he reminded me that I had gotten an A from another professor not because it was given to me but because it earned it. The world needs more people in the world like this man.

I have to say that new Preservation Society Director Ernest Dollar is sure making old stuff exciting. Even to this jaded hipster! (I am a bit of history nerd actually…)

Thanks for the heads up Sally! via GreeneSpace

Atomic Age Architecture Symposium. Explore Chapel Hill’s modernist architecture of the 1950s-1970s. The sleepy college town became a center for avant garde designers creating a collection of radically different homes. Dail Dixon, George Smart, and Cathleen Turner will discuss modernism in Chapel Hill and what can be done to preserve these treasures. Tickets are $15 and symposium will be held in the Chapel Hill Museum. Call 942-7818 to reserve tickets.

This man is an important influence on my creative work. Such an amazing innovator. (Thanks for the link to that one @10ch)

Fearless Experimentation

It’s no secret that experimentation (and the failure that goes along with it) is at the core of innovation. While we’ve all probably absorbed the maxims—”fail faster to succeed sooner” or “let 1000 flowers bloom”—few of us have cultivated the insatiable appetite for experimentation that Rauschenberg considered his true work (the art itself, he said, was more like “souvenirs of creation”). Dig a little bit into his story and it’s hard not to be infected and inspired by his adventurous avidity for trying new things—from kinetic sculptures to composing (he was both artistic director of Merce Cunningham’s dance company for years and a collaborator with John Cage).

But it seems Rauschenberg wasn’t just fueled by some inner light—he was propelled by diverse and deep collaborations with everyone from stage performers to engineers. At one point, he founded a collective called E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) to match up artists, scientists and engineers. Most of all, he had the ability to look upon mistakes and failures as a gift: “Screwing up is a virtue,” he said. “Being correct is never the point. . . Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.” And that’s a lesson for all of us: productivity and genuine good-humor toward our inevitable stumbles, rather than a particular talent, puts us on the path toward success (and may in fact be the definition of success itself).

One of my favorite Art professors said to me in college, “Spectacularly failures are better than to mediocre successes.”

So when I saw this blog post on WebUrbanist called The House that Shaped an Architectural Generation: Frank Gehry’s First ‘Deconstructivist’ Building I was amazed. I haven’t thought about the word Deconstructivism in a long time.

So what if Gehry’s buildings fall apart and don’t function practically. They are art IMHO. I wish I could make a full size 3-D scan of them, replace them with functional buildings, and paste the art/building into a virtual place where weather and time don’t exist. Not sure if that would be preservation or destruction.

I was impressed that some actors and producers spoke out in solidarity. But now that the smart writers of The Daily Show have laid it out… I grok it. Viacom is being fat cat greedy!

This video helped me understand why we need them so much. These folks are our teachers. Well some of them. Maybe not the folks who write for reality TV. hugs and kisses! This vid is funny and educational BTW. It explains a lot!

Thanks for sharing this Albert! More info at the United Hollywood blog.

Today I finally got fired from the National Enquirer.

SO go on over there and add to this web 2.0 exquisite corpse. Fun!

Nothing new here ‘cept they will, “allow fans to decide how much to pay for it, if anything.” WOW.

I think this amazing. Not because I could get this bands music for free. Been there done that. Yawn… But because a major famous ‘recording artist’ is making a move AWAY from the middle man, aka record labels.

We all know how often the middle man rips off creative people. (not every time mind you) Oh yeah they give you money but do you really get what your creativity is truly worth from them? Can you own all of your intellectual property and its entire set of rights? What about creating personal relationships with fans? Record labels don’t foster that at all. Not in a sustainable or healthy way.

I got involved in the web and learned HTML to help artists promote themselves. Now many years latter we see our famous creative brothers are helping to remove the shackles. Radiohead may not be as altruistic as I. They may actually be able to make more money with this method of distribution. Perhaps the street creed and good PR will sell more record company produced CDs later. Regardless I hope they succeed so other artists will be inspired to remove the middle man!

When I studied Sculpture and Painting in college I thought a lot about the intersection of painting and 3D objects. Combined was my dream of creating video as moving paintings. This video above, aka Machinima, called Watch the World(s) documents the creation of a virtual 3D copy of Vincent van Gough’s painting Stary Night.

This video is a work of art in of itself. To watch the 3D peice in Second Life appear is so moving and beautiful. Not to mention the song by Don McLean called Vincent (aka Starry Starry Night) as the sound track. What a perfect choice! Its all the work of Robbie Dingo. (that’s his “digital alter ego” a Second Life avatar..)

Cory Doctorow mentions another famous artist who attempted something similar,

What Robbie Dingo has done is something Akira Kurosawa only envisioned: brought Van Gough’s masterpiece to rich, three dimensional life, and for a brief moment, recast it as a living place.

This is a reference to a part of Kurosawa’s movie Dreams called Crows. (This movie is in my top 5 favorite movies of all time)

A brilliantly-colored vignette featuring director Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh. An art student finds himself inside the vibrant and sometimes chaotic world inside Van Gogh’s artwork, where he meets the artist in a field and converses with him. The student loses track of the artist (who is missing an ear and nearing the end of his life) and travels through other works trying to find him. Van Gogh’s painting Wheat Field with Crows is an important element in this dream.

Now we have a 3D world, Second Life, that made it easy to create a film/art PLACE you can exist in. Ever dream of living in a painting? Well now you can. Wow!

via Boing Boing and The Official Linden Blog

There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution
Have no faith in constitution
There is no bloody revolution

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Our so-called leaders speak
With words they try to jail you
The subjugate the meek
But its the rhetoric of failure
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Where does the answer lie?
Living from day to day
If its something we cant buy
There must be another way

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

This whole record is pretty socially conscious. Reggae overtones through out. Reggatta de Blanc (White Reggae) of some quality for sure. “One world is enough – for all of us!”

In light of the fact that the old mural is gone this is an excellent opportunity for the Town to make lemon aid outa’ lemons. (sorry for the tired analogy)

I suggest that ya’ll create a official town graffiti contest. (YES embrace the word graffiti. Contradict the negative connotation that graffiti is only for gang bangers) Identify some talented local spray can artists who will have a “battle”. They can compete on creating two separate pieces of street art at the same time. They would have a time limit. Say 48 hours.

In conjunction with this contest you could set aside a piece of the wall just for random graffiti and stencil art (etc) by anyone. It would be painted over every two weeks or a month. That way you get lots of interesting art over time, cover over offensive gang stuff, and teach people about the beauty of change.

This is a constructive way to get creative kids involved in their community instead of “defacing” property. I think we may even be able to get the police involved in working with the kids on making some spray art. That is the kind of out reach that could work and the Town of Carrboro could pull off.

I realize this would require property owner permission. If not at the mural across from the century center then else where.

Lets embrace the art of youth!