Whimsical

Spherical

2012

Steel

57 x 45 x 48 inches

900 lbs.

This sculpture began with a simple thought experiment: imagine a container of bolts dropped through the air and frozen in a single instant. Then imagine everything removed except what remained within the boundaries of a sphere.

To explore the idea, I first built a proof-of-concept using ¼-inch PVC pipe. That small model allowed me to study how randomly oriented elements could create a convincing spherical form. Once I was satisfied with the composition, I scaled the concept into steel using more than 275 linear feet of 3-inch tubing. Every exposed tube end was individually capped, welded, and blended to create a finished surface.

Balanced on a sixty-degree axis, the sculpture rotates freely, allowing the composition to shift as the viewer moves around it. From every angle, the overlapping tubes create new patterns of line, shadow, and depth while maintaining the illusion of a suspended moment in time.

A Personal Note

This was one of my earliest large sculptures and one of the first times I explored how many independent elements could come together to define a single form. Looking back, I can see ideas that would continue throughout much of my work—movement, repetition, geometry, and the challenge of transforming a simple concept into a finished sculpture.