Sticks

Sculptures, wall sculptures and pendants constructed with dowels and painted.
These echo the idea of coloured rays of light, seen in other works.

About the Sticks series

The straight dowels in these sculptures represent the way that, as light energy, colour travels in straight lines in all directions. The shadows the works cast act to connect this representational world of the artwork with the reality of present time.

While the outcomes appear quite simple, the processes required turn out to be fairly complex. Achieving a satisfying design can involve some mental acrobatics and, while it might seem that there ought to be infinite variations possible, the materials restrict these, which means I have to have several goes at it. I also apply some rules of my own, such as that dowels of the same colour can’t touch.

Technically, the process is as follows:
The dowels are cut to various lengths and taped together. When the form is settled on, the tapes are removed one joint at a time and the dowels screwed together, with care taken to countersink the screws. The screw-holes are then puttied up, the whole work sanded smooth and painted with several layers of wood primer, sanding between each layer. The colour choices tend to work out progressively as each colour is mixed and applied. For each colour, the joints are masked off, and several coats are applied before the masking is removed. When all the colours are done there will be a bunch of touching up to do, and I often return to discover bits that were missed, no matter how thorough I think I’ve been.