Inspiring Art: The Singing Ringing Tree

Some of our favorite places to visit are sculpture gardens including Storm King in NY State. We have started collecting ideas of other places to visit through recommendations and web searching. This is how we stumbled upon The Singing Ringing Tree in England.

Image Source: Flickr.com

This award-winning sculpture is a fascinating combination of man-made metals and nature's breath - the wind. It stands just under 10 feet high in the Pennine Mountains looking over Burnley, in Lancashire, England. This sculpture was enginered by the British architecture firm Tonkin Liu. It is made of glavanized steel tubes that harness the wind to send low melodic tones over the land. Here is an excellent YouTube video about the process of developing and making the sculpture:

Someday when we make our way back to Europe this will certainly be on our list of places to visit. Have you seen The Singing Ringing Tree in person? What were your thoughts?

Inspiring Art: Dalí-esque Violins by Phillippe Guillerm

Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí painted amazing paintings of dripping clocks. His most famous work, The Persistence of Memory, depicts his dripping clocks perfectly. Artist Phillippe Guillerm takes a similar approach to his spring instrument sculpture by removing the usual rigidity of the instruments.  

Electoral Promess

According to Guillerm's website, "Guillerm began his professional life in Paris, France the city where he was born in 1959 and lived for twenty years... Guillerm's music-inspired sculptures are whimsical and curvaceous string instruments, he uses the theme as a way of expressing human nature and needs, you see an instrument, he sees an attitude." 

These are some pretty inpresive pieces carved from various exotic and local wood such as Mahogany, aspen, Jacaranda, poplar, wengue, purple heart, and walnut.  

Head over to Guillerm's website to check out more of these pieces. 

Inspiring Artist: Chris Booth

The use of stone as a sculpture medium is fascinating. We've shared some of our favorite stone sculpture finds on this blog including Sculpture in the Woods at the Andres Institute of Art. Marji has also shared some of her favorite stone sculpture inspiration and own creations on her blog Ashbee Design. 

Stone can be used to create small delicate sculptures and colosal pieces that tower over the Earth. Chris Booth is an artist that creates the latter.

Bukker Tillibul. 2002 
Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale, Victoria, Australia.

In an article written by John K. Grande at Sclupture.org, artist Chris Booth was "[b]orn in Kerikeri, New Zealand, in 1948, [and] has pursued sculpture associated with the land, earth forms, and indigenous peoples of the regions where he has worked. He received his initial education at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and then branched out to study with various sculptors in Europe..."

Booth creates using slab and boulder stone often combining the two to create beautiful sculptures on varying landscapes. Here are some samples of his work:

Untitled, 2010 - 2011. 
Rotoroa Island, Hauraki Gulf, NZ

Nikau. 1996 
Botanic Gardens, Christchurch, New Zealand. 

More images and information about his work can be found at his website.

Alternative Kinetic Power Source • Water

Nearly all of David's kinetic sculptures are powered by springs. Early in his career he used descending weights but he has never used water as a power source.  These sculpted downspouts crafted out of copper do use water as a power source.

Their combination of whimsey and mechanics appealed to me.  I thought many of you that enjoy David's work would also appreciate the creativity of these downspouts.  They are designed and crafted by Vladimir Sumchecko, a Ukrainian immigrant located in the Pacific Northwest.  His website is Art of Rain.  

Juggling - Another form of Kinetic Sculpture

I love the connections that are made in today's digital world. People from all over the world can see David's work and communicate with us about it and how it relates to their experiences. David recently received this email:

"I have been a fan of your work for many years. My main passion in life is juggling - yes, really - and this video reminded me of your sculptures:

Cordially,  Jerry

I followed the link and sure enough, David and I too saw the connections. Do you?

Center

Which of David's sculptures are you reminded of? I see a little of:

• Quandary (2009)

• Crescent (2002)

• Aperture (1993)

• Variation Water (2004)

• Pursuit and Tumbler  (1982)
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Thanks Jerry M. for taking the time to write and share the video. What fun!