City Dweller Tribal Warrior
light, acrylic and wood
Craig McDowall
SCULPTOR
Contemporary Sculpture
City Dweller Tribal Warrior
light, acrylic and wood
City Dweller Tribal Warrior is a major piece for me. Created primarily in acrylic, it is quite large for that medium. It is lite from inside by fluorescent tube lights, which causes the piece to be fairly deep to avoid hotspots (this was made well before the LED was available). As much as any of my acrylic pieces, I tried to take advantage of the colors created from overlapping the translucent sheets of acrylic. This was created at the peak of the crack epidemic, when gangs seemed to be everywhere, and drive-by shootings were commonplace. CDTW was last seen in Portland, OR
Row Planting
Acrylic
Row Planting might be my most sublime sculpture. The overall design and concept are very understated. There is a nice juxtaposition between the natural world and technology. This sculpture is held together by tension, with the mirror blue curved piece pinched between the two ends, locked in place by large clear rods. The mirror blue upper layer has been drilled (in a row planting pattern), and 1/16 clear rods inserted through each hole at a mostly uniform height.
Sadly, Row Planting is a good example of a ‘one off’ piece; A great idea which was explored in a single sculpture. I have a few of those from my early years. LOL I would like to believe that Travis has taken good care of this artwork.
Ascension
Acrylic and wood
I have two distinct memories from Ascension. First, I had just cut the profile of the Christ figure when a big wind storm came and knocked out the power in the whole region. Cathy and I were heating our house with wood at that time, so heat was not a problem. I remember spending the day at the dining room table, hand filing and sanding the edges of the figure until the sun went down. It is hard to see in the photo, but glued to the figure are clear rods of varying thickness and height. So the fingertips are short thin rods, while the torso rods are thicker and taller, creating a 3-D relief.
My second memory is related to our move back to Colorado from Washington. We simply could not take everything, particularly this large sculpure, which hung in the gallery at around 9 feet high. In Lacey, WA was a Christian academy, and they accepted this piece as a gift. We agreed it would be placed in one of their stairwells. I like to believe it is there to this day.
SCULPTURE:
All art and images copyrighted by Craig McDowall