NEPR from the shop to the studio

Last summer, the NEPR team visited my shop while shooting a podcast pilot for a series that comes out in the spring. While I usually tell people there isn’t a specific approach I have to creating, I was once again reminded during our conversation that not everyone can see robots in scrap metal parts. Swear I see them everywhere! (…insert Beautiful Mind or Sixth Sense reference here)nepr-interview-july-14
After a few hours with them in my workspace, they invited me to come to their studios for an extended interview the following month. As I sat down in the chair and put the headphones on, it was like riding a bike and it all came right back. One of the waypoints in my journey was spending a few years DJ’ing at Rock 102.

Whether it’s a torch or a microphone – I certainly enjoy creating. How about you?

Robot Profiles: Miss Murphy

Miss Murphy
Miss Murphy, was named for my mother-in-law.  Her pieces are from materials I found in her house a few years ago after she passed. As I was putting her together and thinking of stories about the time spent with Jean –  how she always made me laugh and how I always made her laugh too.

I miss murphy upclosewas thinking of the crazy hair that she would have and as when I was building her skirt, I thought “Miss Murphy would certainly not go outside of the house without being properly accessorized” so I decided to give her a little hand bag.

Of course she still has some wild hair – that goes with her wild style. For more pictures of Miss Murphy visit my Flickr page.

Robot Profiles : Captain Ginger

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This is Captain Ginger. As I was putting him together I started to paint the story in my mind ….a pudgy little kid with his bottom lip rolled up over the top. He’s running around the back yard with a piece of cloth that he found. He put some strings on it and it became a cape.

Now he’s jumping up over the picnic table and bench in the backyard. “Look at me mom! Look at me, I can fly” And as mom looks out from the kitchen window, she says “Sweetie, what a great cape! Of course you can fly!” 

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There are some aspects of him that make me think about the very end of Iron Giant when the giant is flying up and you hear Hogarth saying “You are who you choose to be”, then the giant says “Superman”.

Capt. Ginger was sold at the Boys and Girls Club Winter Craft Fair to a delightful older gentleman in his 90’s. He had been looking at him for 10-15 minutes; turning him over and studying all the parts/pieces. Then he turned to me, with the biggest smile on his face and said he’d like to take him home now. It totally made my day how happy this man was.

I can now picture that Capt. Ginger is sitting next to this man’s chair in his living room and each time he looks over there’s a lil’ sparkle in his eye thinking about when he was a little kid running through the yard with a cape. Man, I love what I do.

Robot Profiles: A Box of Art Supplies

What would you do with a box full of bolts and gears and random pieces of metal?

bolts-arrivalI received a package one afternoon (a very large and heavy package – condolences to the carrier that had to bring that parcel) which asked that very question.

It was story that started on Instagram with a challenge posed by a fellow artist named Bucket of Bolts. Each recipenent would take pieces from the box to create something, then add pieces from their shop before it headed out to the next artist chosen.

It arrived to me from Gunstone Creations and after 4 days of welding, cutting, grinding, drilling, hammering and bolting, it was done…well almost done. There was still a lot of sanding and paint prep to do. I started posting a daily play-by-play of all the fun I was having creating with this new supplies. Finally on day 5, it was complete. Meet Sir Bolts – he is created from about 50% box parts and 50% items I had in/around my shop.

sir-boltsHad an amazing time working on him, decided what pieces to add to the box and then choosing the next person to send it off to.

It went from the East Coast back to the West Coast into the talented hands of Joanie Butler, who created “Star Gazer” with the pieces.

You can follow all the fun by checking in on #boxofartsupplies and what will you create today?

Mixed Media & Monsoons on Mattoon

Now say that 3x fast – quite the tongue twister huh? I am a bit tongue-tied myself after winning First Place in the mixed media category at the Mattoon Street Art Festival. It was quite the morning as a rain storm (ok, maybe not a full-on monsoon) blew down the street knocking a few of the tents overs before the festival opened.

Was both surprised and delighted when a member of the Mattoon Street Historic Preservation Society, sponsors of the annual event, popped into my booth with a blue ribbon and a photographer.

It is quite an honor and being my first year at the show, I was humbled and appreciative of the award – look forward to seeing me (and my Shopbots!) again next year.

Here’s hoping the Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a dry weekend in 2017.

Maker-in-Residence: Fostering creativity through collaboration

I am very pleased to announce that I will be the Maker-in-Residence at the Danbury Library for the month of October. The role of the Danbury Library’s Maker-in-Residence is to brighten the light on unique creativity and create with the help of community influence. This influence will come from many different people – library patrons, members of the Connecticut Science Center & Danbury Library Teen Innovation Program, staff and community members. Everyone will be involved through active participation in shaping one or more of my creations through an exchange of ideas – that means you too.

Hope you will come out during one of my workshops on 10/22 or 10/29 both get started at noon. Not only will you get to see some of my latest creations, but you’ll be learning too. Just imagine the educational aspects to take away like:steam fair october

  • Math – Measuring and layout of parts for cutting, drilling and assembling
  • Science – Welding of molten metal and bending of heated steel.
  • Art Literacy – Transforming everyday junk into unique works of art.

See? It’s like a robot university! If you come, I will instruct our future overlords to kill you last 🙂

I will also be in attendance for the fall Steam Fair October 15th from 10am-5pm, a fun-filled day of innovation and imagination.

 

From Scrap to Sculpture

from scrap to sculpture

With an every changing art scene in New England, how do you keep track of what to see right now? By using this site, that’s how. Alright, that might be a bit self-serving but I am so excited about my latest exhibit at The Elusie Gallery that I hope you’ll forgive me.

While making something from metal requires a lot of patience and skills, creating art from recycled metal materials takes even more time and accuracy. This group exhibition brings together a number of artists that work with found, reclaimed, re-purposed metal elements.

The From Scrap to Sculpture exhibition will continue until August 6th. Come see how I bring scrap metal to life.

Talks with Robots: Origins of the Robot Profiles

robot familyWhen I’m out and about meeting with people, a lot of times people will speak about my robots as if they are alive –  “He’s cute”, “What’s her name?”…truth be told, sometimes I think that they’re alive myself! I do see them come together in the disjointed pieces on my bench and find myself telling little anecdotes about them as I’m putting them together. If you’ve seen some of my pieces recently, you know I have been starting to put together biographies for all of my Shopbots. I see the personalities in each of them.

Sometimes people call me an artist, a creator, a maker, a welder or just an all-out weirdo – truth be told, I think I’m a little of each. The one thing I am in addition to all those things is a storyteller and I can even enable you to be a storyteller too. Look at my pieces and ask yourself “What did that part used to be?” “Where did this come from”? Sure, you can look at the parts but the real story is in the whole creation. Begin to imagine what the story is behind where each of those pieces came from or now that they are together – what they’re going to be doing in the future?

Over the new few months I’m going to start a series called “Robot Profiles” and tell you the background behind my robots. Hope you’ll enjoy the stories as much as I enjoyed making the Shopbots themselves. Now quick, go, before they hear you!

STEM and STEAM and Robots – Oh My

steam fair roboticsMost people know that STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. But what about STEAM? STEAM is what you get when you add art to the mix. And if you add robots in too? Then you have STEAM Fair Robotics Expo – now that’s right up my alley.

Danbury Library is having a special STEAM fair in their Hackerspace this May to celebrate individuals in the arts and sciences who focus on robots.The event is being held on May 14th – hope to see you there.

The fair is free and runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hackerspace in the Danbury Library on Main Street.

Robot Profiles : Shinda

Shinda is named for Shindaiwa, a global company that makes outdoor power equipment (leaf blowers, hedge trimmers, edgers etc.) that started in 1955 in Japan with a chain saw.Shinda

I got this weed whacker at a tag sale from a fellow tinkerer, he had customized it into a boat trolling motor…prop and all! Now this weed whacker has been reinvented 2x since its original form.trimmer

The head is from the motor, the muffler makes up the body and one arm is the piston. I made the legs from the motor shafts. I wanted to make a piece mostly out of one item I had, so other than 3 pieces (the door lock arm, wrench for a hand and the bobbin eyes) – it’s all the Shindaiwa trimmer.

If the people that made this could see the many transformations their work has had and what is has now become, I’m sure they would be happy. I know I am.