This past weekend I hung my aeronautical sculpture called “Wings Of Innocence” at the brand new Hilton Downtown Columbus. The opposing wall is a spectacular 15,000 sq. ft. glass skylight, which I believe makes a perfectly airy atmosphere for the sculpture.
“Wings Of Innocence” is a retrospective response to the inherent imagination of children. Children combine reality and fiction in a way that provides a solution without fear of concept failure. Likewise, the double-wings combine realistic and imaginative flight elements in a suspended sculpture.
The latest ToeHeads to come on the scene are brothers. These 2 characters are large-scale cutouts on reclaimed wood that has been salvaged from an old secretary’s desk. With freshly sanded walnut surfaces, these colorful siblings have plenty of new life to roar about. Of course, we all know that they’re not as ferocious as they might think.
GreenBrother: Acrylic on reclaimed walnut laminant. 26″ x 30″. 3.13.15.BlueBrother: Acrylic on reclaimed walnut laminant. 26″ x 33″. 3.14.15.
“It’s yours if you want it… But I’m dragging it to the dumpster on Friday if you don’t do something with it.”
Yep. That sentence. Usually, it’s regarding something big, amazing, and… most likely a tad unwieldy. Maybe it’s referring to that upright piano that you would LOVE to have, but just don’t have the room for. Or maybe it’s that dresser that you’ve needed, but your Honda Civic isn’t up to the challenge. In my latest case I was donated an antique jewelers cabinet that was in serious need of some love. Of course, it had to be claimed in the next few days or face decimation. I had a choice and I think I made the right one. This project was an absolutely fun piece-by-piece teardown and rebuild.
This new configuration is sleeker and more versatile. It’s now available to be used as a bar, dining room table, and of course–even a workbench. Read onward to learn more about this piece and its reclaiming process.
Workbench Table: made from antique reclaimed jeweler’s cabinet. 76 1/2″ x 34 3/4″ x 30 3/4″. 2.18.15.
After a delightfully busy week of studio work and paneling an art festival, I’m continuing the process of re-documenting my collection.
“Absolute: Radiance” (detail), Oil on reclaimed quilted walnut. 11 3/8″ x 8 1/2″. 6.14.13
It’s not the biggest or the smallest piece in this series. It doesn’t hold the most humor or even seem as conspicuous as some other pieces in this series. But this piece holds a lot of information for portraying so little. It’s the sometimes less is more analogy. There’s also a lot of hidden secrets in this piece. Painted on quilted black walnut, even its fairly small dimensions are a sneaky deception. Absolute: Radiance weighs as much as a piece 3 times its size due to its thick cross section. The security code usually stamped on the back is hidden on the side wall of the wood. Even the materials it is made of has a literal and figurative duality.
This painting depicts a bent nail resting on a vein of halo’d metallic gold paint. This effervescent vein follows the grain pattern of the wood and changes sheen based on where the viewer stands. As you have read, there’s some interesting aspects of this piece’s process that makes for some cool behind the scenes information.
The real nail used as subject matter is still IN the piece… after it was liquified and used to dye the frame.
Daric Gill 
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