Featured Artist: Don Ian Dickson

Don Ian Dickson is a kinetic sculptor based out of Ontario, Canada. His designs evolve from his love of the natural creative forces - Earth, Air, Water, Fire. He has sculptures located all over the world. The one below is located in Osyoos, British Columbia and incorporates structure and sound. 

"Narrow Passages, Ageless Sound" by Don Dickson

"This kinetic sculpture at the town hall of Osyoos BC incorporates kinetics and sound to interpret the geography and history of the region. The overall sculpture relates to the mountains, the reeds are the kinetic elements. These relate to the water flowing through this pocket desert. When moved by the wing they act as harmonic chimes. The seasons are shown with the discs at the base for the 13 month lunar cycle of the year." Description from Waymaking.com

You can find more information about Don Dickson and his sculpture at the following links:

www.metalgenesis.com

www.aiesm.com

Have you seen any of his works up close? We'd love to hear what you thought.

Kinetic Art: Dream to Reality: Is it Art or Craft?

This is the fourth in a series of blogs about my history in the craft industry. If you missed the other posts start here.

The debate about art versus craft has been raging for years and it is definitely bigger than my kinetic sculptures. I have no intention of debating it from a philisophical direction here although I encourage opinions in the comments area. It did figure hugely in an early and vital business decision and one that any beginning artist needs to address. Should I market through the craft world or the art world?  

I choose the craft world. Granted, it is easier to choose when creating sculpture because the line is decidedly blurry, not so fuzzy for painting. But I had strong reasons for the choice and, because we expect many fellow dreamers might bereading this to garner clues, Marji thought it important to share our reasons.

Like so many things in life, it came down to money. In the mid 70's the craft movement was emerging. Organizations like the American Craft Council, and Buyers Market were busily creating venues (just a fancy word for trade shows) that made professional and national exposure a possibility. These events brought us together with craft gallery owners from around the nation. The art side had no similar possibilities . In the art world, you lugged your portfolio from gallery to gallery searching for interest. While I would have loved to travel and show my work in Hawaii, Texas, and California, reality kept me firmly in New England. Take a moment and picture me on such an adventure with kinetic sculptures.

As impossible an endeavor as that might have been, the answer to this question for us came more from the financial organization of each industry. In the art world the norm is for an artist to provide work to the gallery on aconsignment basis. The artist gets paid a negotiated amount after a sale. In the craft industry many more galleries buy creative work outright. This meant I got paid up front or, if credit was granted, in 30 days. It was a clear illustration of the old bird-in-hand saying.

We did a little trial and error to define the best method for Wood That Works. We did test the policy of consignment at a high end gallery. Two things caused us to stop consignment arrangements. The first was that unless the gallery was local, keeping an eye on what had sold, what was being actively shown, and what was collecting dust in the storage area was impossible. It was wonderful having my work displayed and attracting attention for both me and the gallery. The galleries that had already paid for the sculptures sold far more than the ones who had them on consignment.

So, whether it is art or craft doesn't matter when it is your living. The craft world has been a wonderful place for me to show and sell my work.  

To continue to part 5: Click Here

Kinetic Art: Dream to Reality - Business Tools

This is the third in a series of blogs about my history in the craft industry. If you missed the other posts start here.
We arrived home from the 1976 Rhinebeck craft show both elated and overwhelmed. We had wholesale gallery orders for more wall sculptures in the following 6 months than I had made in the entire short history of Wood That Works. Now what?

Fortunately both Marji and I are fairly organized people. We realized that we needed to learn how to run a wholesale business including (gulp) credit checks. It seemed all of our new customers wanted something called "net 30" payment terms. (Remember I had studied Physics and Marji studied art in college, not a business course between us.) The world of business was all new to us. We had to learn about invoices, packing lists, statements and something called a tickle file. Luckily we had family resources to call on.

Marji's father had quite a collection of old furniture including some ancient wood filing cabinets that were just what we needed. My mother had been an executive secretary for years. She taught us how to handle invoicing, billing, correspondence and filing techniques. My sister was an accountant and helped us set up a bookkeeping system. These seemingly mundane functions were critical to starting and running a business. The critical office equipment we had to buy included a typewriter and a calculator. I remember it as equal in difficulty to purchasing a computer today!

Marji and I had learned early on that although we loved working together we were far better off each having our own domains to control (too many bosses). I became design, production and shipping. Marji gravitated towards finance, scheduling, and marketing. Of course to make this work there was, and still is, a lot of overlap. Marji is my essential design critic and teacher. Without her, "That's nice, but have you thought of..." suggestions, my work would be far less than it is! I like to think I help in similar areas of her domain but she's probably just being polite...

The shop, all 200 square feet of it, had the tools I needed - bandsaw, drill press, router and sander. What needed to be developed were new production techniques so I could make multiples of the same design accurately and in a timely fashion. This involved a lot of invention, experimentation, trial and error but every month I discovered new tricks. There were few books and of course no Internet, so I made a lot minor mistakes, and some disasters, like when I forgot an entire production run of parts outside for the night and it rained...

 To continue to part 4: Click Here

Introducing Jamboree Kinetic Sculpture

Jamboree, a new and unique kinetic sculpture, is being introduced on my website this week.   It is a one-of-a kind piece that is larger, freestanding and for the first time I have ventured into the third dimension in the design of my patterning wheels.  The emerging visual effects vary as you alter your viewing perspective.   Jamboree is the first completed piece emerging from my design sabbatical. There will be more experimental ideas appearing over the next few months so stayed tuned.

Featured Artist: U-Ram Choe

Koren born kinetic artist U-Ram Choe is currently being featured at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, TN. He creates flaura and fauna-esque pieces that are pleasing to the senses using metal, computer components, custom software and LEDs. Here is one example:

There are many videos on YouTube showing his work. Have you see U-Ram Choe's work up close? We'd love to hear your insight and thoughts on his pieces.