Back to Simple

Evolution
For five years I continually had a steel Ring Dance sculpture underway. Each led to the next in an organic flow of possibilities realized. At this point there are eleven pieces. Many of them are decorating the landscape here at the refuge. Three have sold and one is on extended loan. It’s likely the series is complete—but I’ve said that before, then found myself with an idea for another.

Ring Dance No.1–INCEPTION, galvanized steel, 48" x 48" x 84", sold

There are several threads that weave through them all. Rings, of course, but also a ritual, exploratory process that put me in collaboration with the materials and fabrication in a quest to discover (and be surprised by) the eventual form. 

As the process evolved they became more complex and dense, varying from complete chaos to ideas of order, from an assembly of iterations of one element to a complex that involved five or six different shapes, and from fourteen elements overall to too many to count.  

Each of the final pieces has its grace and strengths; they each exist as individuals and as generations of kin—as dependent on one another as they are each freed from those that came before. 

Looking Back
When ten were complete I looked back to the original, the great grandmother of them all, and wondered what it was that I found so singularly compelling about that first.

Besides the pure clarity of being the first, I realized it was also the most simple.

It had the fewest parts, as well as the fewest rules of engagement. These details give it an open, uncomplicated stance I appreciate. Simplicity is its strength. Over the next few weeks the idea for the ultimate Ring Dance, #11, took form.

The guidelines for ELEVEN were simple: it would only have eleven rings, organized one by one with no preconceived overall form—but it would be the first with open rings against the ground, offering the illusion that the structure continues under the surface, as if it were merely the very top of a huge structure growing from roots in the mysterious depths of the planet. Sometimes becoming complex is an important part of getting back to simple. 

Ring Dance #11, ELEVEN is here at the Refuge. Come see.

Ring Dance No.11—ELEVEN, steel, galvanized and powder-coated, $4,600

See Ring Dance Series