I make sculptures of sailing ships, made with found materials including fishing poles, brass hardware, steel wire, wood, metal scraps.
I've always loved miniature models and figures, and was especially captivated by exquisite wooden sailing ship models like the ones often found in lobbies of large buildings. One day it occurred to me that I could try to make a similar sort of ship model, but in my own style. But I only started making them a few years later, after it dawned on me that I could use fishing poles as masts & yards. That was the insight that sparked me to immediately start making the first one, the USS Halcyon.
49-3/4 long x 11-3/8 wide x 69” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects
2011
Exhibited as part of
"The Museum of Bitter Sorrows Presents: The Wreck of the Halcyon"
Cricket Engine, Oakland CA 2011
Collection of Kathleen Stafford
52” long x 9” wide x 44-1/2” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects
2015
Exhibited as part of installation
“Dead Reckoning”
Shadow Office, Oakland CA 2015
curated by Torreya Cummings
An early, very minimal version was exhibited as part of
"The Museum of Bitter Sorrows Presents: The Wreck of the Halcyon"
Cricket Engine, Oakland CA 2011
An early, very minimal version, exhibited as part of
"The Museum of Bitter Sorrows Presents: The Wreck of the Halcyon"
Cricket Engine, Oakland CA 2011
Installation view:
“Dead Reckoning”
Shadow Office, Oakland CA 2015
Photo by Torreya Cummings
Installation view:
“Dead Reckoning”
Shadow Office, Oakland CA 2015
Photo by Torreya Cummings
Installation view:
at Urban Ore
January 2018
Installation view:
at Urban Ore
January 2018
Approx 50” long x 12” wide x 69” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects
2016
Made collaboratively with Molly Allander, Johne Behner, Cynthia Etchegoin, Fred Swanson, and Renate Victor during an artist residency at McCormick House in Silver City NV in March and April, 2016. With further help from Matt Elms, Bob Elston, Quest Lakes, Lila Lindsay, Brittanie Mullings, Sheree Rose, The Healthy Communities Coalition & the Resident Artist Program in Silver City. Given as a gift to the citizens of Silver City.
Exhibited at St. Mary’s At Center July-September 2016.
We started with this piece of proto-hull that I brought with me from Oakland.
Molly, Renate and Johne were all smiles at our first meeting.
Everyone jumped right in with design suggestions.
I would do a little work on my own each week between collaborative meetings.
Up on the hill between Smith Valley & Carson Valley I spotted Nifty Thrifty, so I careened on in. Spent a half hour getting to know Tony the proprietor. He talked me into trying out a piece of marble as the base for the USS Silver Stallion. Tried to give it to me for free but I gave him eight bucks. Everyone liked the marble base.
I had to do all the tedious work.
Molly, Fred, Renate, Cyndy and Johne hard at work.
Molly and Renate like what they see.
The official launch party.
The team that made the ship: Molly Allander, me, Renate Victor, Johne Behner, Fred Swanson, Lila Lindsay, Matt Elms, Brittanie Mullings and Cyndy Etchegoin.
59-1/2” long x 9 wide x 65” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects
April-May 2016
While working on the USS Silver Clipper with the collaborative team during my Silver City Artist Residency, I also built, on my own, another three-masted schooner that I eventually decided to name the USS Bob McKinney, in honor of the local legend and homeless artist shot dead in Virginia City NV by a sheriff’s deputy some years ago. After completion, I hiked up above Silver City and installed it in a secret location in the hills that had sheltered Bob McKinney for years.
39" long x 11" wide x 47” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, antlers, sea shells, found objects
When I started this one, I thought it was going to be a "death metal" "viking" ship, a sort of novelty item, but at some point it started developing a different character, and now I think it is my most fully-realized ship, the closest to what I originally had in mind when I started this series of sculptures.
The antlers were courtesy of taxidermist & artist Alicia Goode.
40" l x 7" w x 41-1/2" h
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects
in progress
I started this one in Silver City, Nevada in 2015. It's named after a friend from college days in Colorado. Pete made a good life for himself in Minnesota, with lots of kids and grandkids, but died at 60, much too young, of brain cancer. The making and naming of these ships are essentially acts of loving and remembering. I brought this ship back to Oakland, finished the hull & deck details, rigged the yards to the masts but did not step the masts. Instead, I mailed the hull and separate masts to Pete’s widow Nancy, flew to mutual friend Ron Sutcliffe’s house in Boise and drove with him through a blizzard to Nancy’s house in Minnesota, where Ron & I installed & rigged the masts and put the ship up on the mantel.
USS CHELSEA MANNING - 2011
43" long x 11" wide x 39” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects
First exhibited in “Three-Ring Orchestra” at ProArts, Oakland CA, March 2018
USS URSULA K LeGUIN - 2018
34" long x 7.5" wide x 41.5” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects, copper & brass wire
Exhibited as part of “Three-Ring Orchestra”
ProArts, Oakland CA, March 2018
52” long x 12” wide x 52” high
Scavenged wood, fishing poles, found objects
2018
Built in August 2018 during my Tides Institute & Art Museum’s StudioWorks Residency in Eastport, Maine.
Exhibited as part of my "Museum of Dubious Navigation"
North Church Studio, Eastport Maine, August 2018
Collection of Tides Institute & Art Museum, Eastport ME
