Friday, March 13, 2015

Nailed

Last night we attended the University of Southern Maine's spring Juried Student Art Exhibition featuring artwork of 25 USM students. J- had one of his recent pieces selected to go into the show. This semester he is taking a sculpture course and is spending many of his hours in the metals' lab welding. This is not one of his pieces, but I like it, especially with the way the shadows were falling off of it. I'm reminded of hot July afternoons walking along the railroad tracks around Morrills Corner picking up discarded spikes like these to do God knows what with. Wait a minute. Something's coming back. We used them as tent spikes to hold our pup tents down on nights we were sleeping out, and of course getting into mischief.
Mom claimed my youth was a lot of 'peter pan'.
I recall it more along the lines of Huck Finn without the Big Muddy.
Maybe there was a little bit of both.
There.
Nailed it!

20 comments:

  1. My mother used to save rusted, bent nails. Maybe she was an artist at heart.

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  2. I really like that- it's very different!

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  3. You sure did Birdman, excellent post :)

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  4. I like it, too, esp. with the shadows beneath . . .

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  5. I like the idea of you as a boy who did not want to grow up . I think your mum was right !:o)

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  6. Hah - you sure did! You're right about the shadows -- quite wonderful.

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  7. Yup - nailed! Nice diversion from the arctic views . . .

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  8. I do like this piece. It jogged a few memories loose here too. I'm not sure why but I keep thinking about a bicycle adventure I had all by myself in my youth when I ended up in a pretty sketchy area strewn with rusty bits and pieces.

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  9. I particularly like the shadows!

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  10. This piece doesn't work without its shadows, which are brilliant. Are we gonna see J's work? Huh? Can we? Huh??

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  11. That's a really good photo of an interesting work. There is a lot of subjectivity in art. I could see this in the Whitney.

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  12. Appealing piece


    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^=

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  13. (i am a collector of found junk...ha. and railroad spikes, the older & rustier, the better!)
    i really like this sculpture!!! and the swirling shadows are fantastic!!

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  14. The piece itself is interesting but the shadows make it extraordinary!

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  15. Interesting sculpture using antique cut nails. In the 18th and 19th Century nails were considered so valuable that sometimes people would burn their houses down to retrieve and reuse the nails in their new house. The sculpture has some great shapes shown by those excellent shadows.

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  16. A funny piece of work, and a good use for a few old nails...

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  17. You certainly knew how to make the most of your lucky finds.

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  18. I can see the Peter Pan in you...Cool that J is following an artistic path...I remember when I was in that show, a few years back now...Awesome photo!!!

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