In life, there are things that act (us), and things that are acted upon (matter).
I spend my life manipulating matter. Pro-tip: If you’re searching for happiness, forget about manipulating people. Steel is hard enough.
During a lifetime of technical training here in Green Bay, WI, and in my professional rent-a-carpenter career, I discovered hundreds of methods to ‘join matter,’ many of which ain’t that great…
We tend to view the unknown as scary. I avoided buying a scary, molten-steel-spitting welder until I absolutely needed one. Acquired one and watched in awe as my co-patent ally Howard Sweeney fired up my new liquid-steel-spitting wonder and seriously engaged matter… at age 45; I’d take yet another road less traveled.
Lifelong friend Kevin Smith introduced me to Miles Amorelli, an astronomically imaginative, and (fortunately) local artist, and after a couple precious days under his tutelage, I was consumed with a feeling that I was going to be a world-famous artist.
In the excitement of this revelatory epiphany, I rushed home to announce to my beautiful, understanding wife just what our future held: “Sweetheart, I am going to be a world-famous artist!”
Cocking her head, she responds, “Yeah, right,” while simultaneously thinking He’s talking again and went about her day. Odd. I was expressing feelings. Don’t guys normally do that?
Even though I had never made a piece of art and flunked out of 8th-grade art class (something about having to show up to class, blah blah blah), me being a world-famous artist was a done deal. All I had to do was figure out how to make art. Maybe I shouldn’t have skipped all those art classes…
I was raised by a mother who went through the Great Depression and owe her everything. She embodied the save, repair, reuse, and find-a-use-for-virtually-everything attitude, and uploaded that to me. "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." (William Ross Wallace) Rock on, Mom.
My fledgling art attempts yielded nice steel silhouettes of butterflies, flowers, foxes and various commissions out of scrap tanks. As I plasma cut these creations, scrap fell to the ground from my scrap, and piled up. The save everything download from mom created a scrap pile that was getting out of control. I came across a photo online of a scrappily built rustic, bellowing cow with horns and a bell on the Midwest plains, giving me revelatory epiphany number two, a use for the scrap from my scrap.
Fortunately we’re not alone. My first attempt to sculpt a 3D animal was supposed to be a cow. We won’t talk about her pig nose. Next attempt, a horse? I have three beautifully talented children who are now making children of their own. Second-born Jacob has an innate artistic ability, didn’t skip any of his art classes, and came out one day to inspect this supposed horse. All I remember was him laughing his head off and running back into the house. I quickly coaxed him back out, and after his critique, agreed it had the butt of an elephant and some kind of lizard-neck-thing going on. Other than that, it could have been a horse...
“Everything Creative,” an artist’s interview program opens with this statement: “The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create.” Trust and Rely upon the Spirit, and it’ll help me create? I penned and pondered those words while continuing to sculpt whatever creature I was supposedly making at the time. Paul McCartney wrote the song “All My Loving” on a bus tour and it was done when they arrived. It’s called being in the zone, the flow, whatever name it’s given, wherever it comes from, it happens. Trust and Rely, let’s give it a try. I tried it and can tell you this, both my son and wife stopped asking me what I was making. Each piece after Trusting and Relying has looked a little better than the last. Whatever you’re creating, be it a family, or a spreadsheet, give it a try...
My lifelong inquisitive, de-and con-structive nature inspires and fuels me as I wondrously re-construct and replicate the things my clients and I appreciate in this magnificent world.
Each new conception is sculpted from seemingly random hand-cut and formed pieces of perfectly reclaimed 5000psi home fuel oil tanks from an era gone by, and rich, high-grade rescued stainless steel. These extraordinary hand-formed pieces are malleable enough for sculpting muscles, lips, or hips as they follow my will for their new life.
Start the conversation; I personally welcome your call.
Carl
Accomplishments and Awards Include:
Edgewood Orchard Galleries. One of the Midwest's finest galleries, located in Door County, WI, Featured artist - 2014 to present.
14’ tall “Phoenix Rising” sculpture on UWGB Campus, Green Bay, WI
11’ tall “Ship Building” badger sculpture, city of Manitowoc, WI
“Woolly” the Mammoth, and “Rusty” the Draft Horse, city of Rice Lake, WI
“Tundra,” A Woolly Mammoth, and "Ferdinand," a Bull, Neville Public Museum.
Olde Main Street "Park in the Art” - “Bessie the Cow,” artistic bike rack.
Three art installations, Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, Green Bay, WI
Two Memorial art installations, Mariners Trail, Manitowoc, WI
Art Street 2013 - Juried art show, Green Bay, WI
63rd Art Annual - Juried art exhibit, Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI
Co-patent on an innovative, industry-changing pro-archery sighting system.
Grand Prize Winner, Green Bay Board of Realtors, 3rd Annual Property Fix-up Contest for extensive renovation of home and studio.
Bull Moose and Bull Elk at the base of the Grand Tetons, Jackson, WY
Commissions in City, Corporate, Public and Private Collections coast to coast.
Soon, global acquisitions, commissions, and exhibitions!
