landscape follies
About a year ago I started making these small sculptures out of tooth picks, super glue, deep red gesso, and gold leaf. I’ve always been a believer in quality materials. With the right materials, things always seem to turn out… well.
Even if you don’t know what that looks like to begin with… I didn’t have a grand design I just thought that the sculpture would somehow come to life if these pieces came together, and maybe if I tried it with something small then I’d know if I could build something bigger.
Details… The box of toothpicks and container of super glue came from my favorite little store Harwick’s (a family owned tools and hardware store that’s been around for more than 75 years) and the gold leaf from Daniel Smith. A few of these supplies had been bumping around in a drawers for a while, as well as in my head, while others I had to go hunting for like… gold.
As I built the triangles they started needing each other to go somewhere. So I wove and layerd the angles and points together. In my mind they were spreading or reaching, bridging and arcing. Eventually they expressed a certain completeness, they had a certain character and the follies, or so sculptures are called in landscapes, made their way to my container garden indoors.
There they seemed to find their home, of all places, on top of plants… Rather than referring to jewel encrusted crowns these are singing in silent sylvan tongues about harmonies and resonances, about how things are built or mended.
