Simple Tree With Moving Leaves - Kinetic Kit
A few weeks ago I went to the see the Keith Haring exhibit at The Broad in Los Angeles. Besides how intensely political his work was, and how incredibly prolific he was for someone so young (gone by the age of 31 😢) i was really taken by his "Totems".
Here is a picture of one I'm "borrowing" from Sotheby's
The white lines in these were actually made with a router, so they are grooves, carved and then painted. And the wood seems like plain construction lumber, Keith was known for using stuff from the hardware store like tarps instead of canvas for painting.
I also liked that he used that sort of simple slot construction too.
So that's where the inspiration came for this month's project. I wanted to experiment with something that wasn't based on a box, and I also wanted to incorporate some paper elements.
A tree/totem seemed like a good start. I designed it in very Lego-like fashion, I made a few basic blocks and then stacked them together to form the shape:
The joints between the paper and the wood are a variation of the paper joints i was exploring on this series of videos where i was making paper linkages, and they hold surprisingly well while allowing for some motion.
I honestly don't know what this thing does. It feels more like a 3-dimensional sketch than a finished project, but sometimes I just need to build these ideas to see what becomes of them. That's why i didn't make a whole kit for sale this time. I feel like I need to sit with it a bit longer, perhaps try a more leaf-like shape for the leaves and other ways to add paper elements. I'll share the project/files later this month.
But do let me know if you would like a version of this kit (if you are reading this as an email you can always just hit reply). Oh, and here is the YouTube version of the video above for sharing purposes.
Other Projects and Updates:
My shop will be closed for the whole month of October since I'll be away from home for a couple of weeks, but I'll re-open in November.
I've been exploring some of the more eccentric watercolor paints made by American art supply maker Daniel Smith. Lots of textures and effects, in watercolor jargon known as "granulation". It's quite fun.
Here is a recent spread from my sketchbook, I used a weird"grid on the left and a tessellation pattern on the right, not my usual palette but I was experimenting with only two colors and their mixing:
Thanks for your support and happy Halloween!
Federico