Having come from an artistic family, I began sculpting at a very early age. As an adolescent I spent a lot of time in a local quarry digging up clay and making things for friends and family. My father taught me to work with wood, building furniture and carving. In 1972 I enrolled at the Hill Fine Art Center were I studied under the great metal sculptor Orion Hargett.
I started out taking lessons and went on to teach photography and wood sculpture there and at Joliet Jr.Collage and eventually came to own and operate the Hill Fine Art Center until 1982. In those years I made and taught wood sculpture while I studied the masters of kinetic art and in 1998 decided to channel all my energy into embracing that medium. In the beginning I used copper but soon changed to stainless steel. I love the idea of taking this heavy and seemingly unyielding metal and transforming it into a piece that floats like a feather and will last for years and years.
I love kinetic sculpture because of all the different mechanisms there are to design with, from Calder’s mobiles to George Rickey’s conical movement and every thing in between. They give me a never ending pallet with which to stretch my imagination.
I have been very fortunate to have had shows and commissions in Santa Fe, NM, Taos, NM, New Orleans LA, Houston, TX, Nashville, TN, Austin TX, Sonoma CA, Wimberley, TX, Fontana, CA, Johnson City, TX, and sold pieces to clients around the world.
In 2008 I had the wonderful honor of being chosen by the McNay Fine Art Museum in San Antonio, TX to teach a kinetic sculpture workshop to 50 art teachers in preparation for their George Rickey exhibit.
I plan to dedicate the rest of my time here on earth designing kinetic sculpture using every mechanism I can invent or find, from opposing pinwheels, to pendulums, to George Rickie’s conical movement. I hope you enjoy what I have done so far and visit me from time to time to see what I come up with in the future.
Very excited and proud to be one of 5 artists from around the world to be chosen to participate in the 5 day Metal Arts Symposium in Mlada Boleslav, a city 40 minutes from Prague in the Czech Republic. This event will take place in June of 2019. I will be the first American and first kinetic sculptor to participate. I will teach my techniques while building a kinetic sculpture at their highly acclaimed Secondary Industrial School. At the end of the symposium my sculpture will be on permanent display on their historic Walk of Metal that was started 7 years ago to coincide with the symposium. My work and that of my fellow particpants will be featured in 2 major art publications in Germany and England.
I want to thank all of my patrons, friends and family who have been so supportive all these years as this would not have been possible without all of you.
Here’s the link to the event: http://www.metalovacesta.cz
- LaPaso