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A commission leads to an interesting pair of works. I always welcome a challenge and rarely get to revisit an idea so soon after completion so I jumped right on the opportunity and dreamed up the work you see here above. The other two are a variation on this one, born out of my dislike of wasting good metal. You see, the copper center ring for the commissioned piece (seen here above) was a bit tricky to cut, as copper always is. So I decided it would be prudent to do some test cutting in Aluminum, which is much more forgiving. It helped work out the bugs in the program and avoid any potential copper wasting mistakes. But, it left me with two aluminum blanks that were the same shape as the copper. Rather than waste them, or save them until the distant future when one day I designed something I could use them in, I thought it would be interesting to play with the idea of variants. Essentially keeping the composition and the center piece the same as the original, but redesigning and tweaking the lines on each of the other components. Rather than a conical center shape to hold all the splines, I went with a rounded shape, I revisited my treatment of the center opening and tweaked the design of the splines themselves. Lastly, I decided I could also make the spin off pair different from each other using color. The pair are geometrically the same, But I employed different materials and anodizing to produce two very different looks. Brass verses copper on the insides, and the Blue and Orange Anodizing. I had often wondered how material selection effected the outcome of my works and this was a great chance to have a real world example. I normally run various combinations through my head as I design, It is great to be able to realize a few of them rather than just picking a single winner. One of the benefits of anodizing over just using a colored metal is that it provides the opportunity to machine the color back off to accentuate certain geometries. In this case I was able to highlight a beautiful little detail produced by the pattern cut into the ring. A bit hard to see in the photos but if you click through to the full size image on my web page you can get a better look. Comments as usual are always welcome. The Pollack Krasner Foundation

One other bit of good news. I was notified just a week or so ago that I have been chosen to receive a grant from the Prestigious Pollack-Krasner Foundation. The Grant is designed to give financial assistance based on both merit and financial need. This is the second time I have been awarded one of these most sought after grants, a rare honor indeed. If you are an artist struggling to make a go at establishing yourself, visit the website and see if this is a grant that might work for you. www.pkf.org
Posted by Chris Bathgate at 1:14 PM