Galaxy No. 3 Wind Vane Sculpture Installed

I finished Galaxy No. 3 yesterday, just around sundown. I was determined to get photos online last night, racing the clock to get the new base installed and then set the vane in place… I got the pics, but by the time I'd finished putting the thing together I was too whipped to actually post anything. I don't have a hoist tall enough for the job, so I carried the 11 foot long, 80 pound, wiggling vane up a ladder that was just tall enough to lift the piece over my head and slot it down onto the vertical shaft it rotates around. In retrospect, it was probably an insanely dangerous thing to do without help, but, hey, sometimes art just can't wait. Or maybe it's me that gets a wee bit impatient, heh.

Click the thumbs to see larger pics in a new window…

 

                  

 

Galaxy No. 3 is the first kinetic piece I've done using sleeve bearings instead of pillow blocks. The bearings are inside the tubing that attaches the sculpture to the base, which keeps them out of the weather. The piece spins readily to point into the direction of the wind. It's a slow and graceful motion… I'd kind of like it if there was enough inertia to keep the piece in rotation, but I guess if the wind changes directions often enough (which it does here) you wind up with the same effect.

I ended up using a different base than the one I had built earlier. That's kind of the trick with these sculptures… they're all about balance, visually as much as mechanically. In the end, the first base just didn't work out, but I'll be working on another vane for that base later today.

I like the way these abstracts are open to various interpretations. In one glance, you might see stars, planets and moons. In another, perhaps a fish. Yet another glance suggests a man riding a boat… the way these different interpretations play off of one another is what really drives the poetic essence of each sculpture, at least for me. I end up with visions of a sailor riding a fish across the sky, etc.