I think my decision to "just say no" to art commitments for a while is already paying off. Changing the question of "what do I need to do" to "what do I want to do" felt like removing the handcuffs yesterday when I got out to my garage, and I busted out a quick piece that I'm really happy with: "Music Box."

Carolina wrens are among my favorite parts of living in Columbia. If you've never been around these birds, you probably don't truly appreciate how loud and bold a pocket-sized bird can be. They sing all day, starting before sunrise. Sometimes they sing all night. If you leave your lawn chair for five minutes you may find a nest in it by the time you get back. They often fly into my garage even while I'm working, completely unfazed by the noise, sparks, and smoke.

"Music Box" was scaled around the neck of a trashed mandolin that one of my local supporters, Susan James, gave me. The body is shaped around a piston from an automobile engine, and the head and shoulders are made from a doorknob. The wings are made from some of the mandolin body and a clock gear. I used the strings (in need of being changed years ago) from my own guitar.

I'm still thinking about what exactly this one "means," beyond the obvious connection between wrens and their songs. As I was working on this and thinking about it, I found myself listening to REM's "Everybody Hurts" over and over again. It's a song about hanging on, especially though long, lonely nights. I think what resonates for me is the unending, self-contained spirit of these tiny, fearless birds whose morning songs signal that the day is right around the corner.

​The second bird is "The Red," an owl made from an old red gas tank I bought from a junk store in eastern North Carolina during a trip this spring with my daughter. I bought the tank for $5 (I tried to get it for $2, but Windy could tell I wanted it) not knowing what it would be. "The Red" by Chevelle popped into my head on the way back from TAG and it the piece was there to be made.

I had a few art lessons as a little kid. One of the things that one of the teachers said that stuck with me was "nothing is ever one color." The water is blue, but it's not all the same blue. The shadows are dark, but they're not the same dark. Seeing the variation is one thing; capturing it in art is something else altogether.

One of the things I wanted to do with "The Red" is take that simple little "red" gas tank and let loose the different shades and textures. Emotions, like objects that we can see and touch, are complex, variable, and never all one color.

I perched this one on an old 1930's lamp stand, cut so the owl is about at eye level.

I'm kind of fascinated by this one because of its connection to internal combustion. It's made from a gas tank. It has the glass fuel petcock inside. It has spark plugs. It's a post-steam creature that produces power by burning within. I kept thinking of that line from "Red Dawn" where the guy says that the anger inside keeps him warm. 

I captured the making of "The Red" on video. Enjoy!​

It was busy spring for me and my family. Part of what made it busy was the convergence between the end of the academic year and art-related commitments I made to make things, ship things, and exhibit things. Although each of those obligations was worthwhile on its own, the cumulative effect was a feeling of being over-booked. It was a buzzkill. 

Art is a glorified hobby for me. Now that I've been successful selling some pieces, of course, there's also an economic utility. But I don't need to always have something for sale, always have a show on the horizon, always have a deadline looming. What I do need is get out in the garage and let my mind and body make what I want to make for a while. So that's what I'm going to do with the time I have this summer. I'm going to say "no thank you" to commitments through the fall. My gut tells me that what I make will be better as a result and it will make me happier to make it. And that would be the main point.

My wife and I went out to dinner last night before going to the EcoFAB show at Tapp's. We went to The Oak Table (for the first time) and learned that it was the last night the restaurant would be open. I had beef Wellington, which I have been wanting to try since I saw Gordon Ramsay getting pissy about it over and over again on Hell's Kitchen years ago. It was pricey, but it felt serendipitous that it was on the menu on what was the restaurant's last day and what felt like the first day of the real summer to me. Plus I just sold "Naked Flank," so it was a gift to myself to pull the trigger and order a $50 dish. And I didn't take a picture of it. Because that's dumb.

The show at Tapp's was a lot of fun, with some really interesting and creative work on display in both wearable and stationary form. A year out from my Afterburner show last May, Tapp's is one of the few places in town where I can go and feel like I know a few people who know who I am and like when I stop by. They don't know or care what I actually do for a living, I'm not defined by which kids are mine, and none of the interactions are torqued by the weird power hierarchies that permeate academic culture.

I'm happy to be involved in the art scene here in Columbia, and I'm determined to keep it that way. That means saying "no thank you" more often.

I feel like I've been starting every blog post lately with "it's been a busy week." I'm too busy to go back and check. 

I'm travelling to Gainesville, Florida, this weekend to participate in the 2018 Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference at the University of Florida. I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of new people and hearing about their work and ideas (many of which I suspect will be pretty far removed from what I spend most of my time thinking about).  I'm going as one of the featured artists, which means I'll be travelling with a car full of metal creatures rather than a Powerpoint. ​

When Ken Sassaman originally approached me about TAG, I strongly considered giving a paper. Even though much of what will be discussed is probably outside my theoretical wheelhouse, I thought I could contribute some insights into how/why/when materials in the "functional" realm can move into the "symbolic" one. I was planning on speaking from my own personal experience as an artist, tempered and informed by my training as someone who studies humans through their material culture. But with everything else going on this spring I gave up on the idea of doing a presentation and just decided to go with a scrap metal crow riding shotgun. 

I'm looking forward to some good conversations! Catch me early in the day for the best chance at coherence, later in the day for a more rambling dialogue.

So far this spring/summer, my experimental efforts at "brand building" for my art have been, as best I can tell, a flop. I've gotten entries in my Summer Selfie Contest from just a single person: Columbia-based artist and friend Flavia Lovatelli. If the first month of the contest is any indication, Flavia is going to win hands down.

While I'm still hopeful that the scheme will start to work, I'm not optimistic. Over the past week I've had large, fairly photogenic pieces in two highly visible spots and . . . crickets. I watched people take photos with my 8.5' seahorse "Rocket Queen" at West Columbia's Kinetic Derby Day and . . . nothing. "Beauty and Grace" has been on full display at ArtFields this week and . . . nothing. The word on the street is that there will be a free popcorn machine next to it tomorrow, so maybe something will happen there. Fingers crossed.

For those of you in Columbia, Saturday presents another opportunity to not take a photograph of yourself with my work. I created a piece called "The Rabbit Hole" for the Tapp's putt-putt golf fundraiser this weekend. My hole (I think it's the 16th hole) plays with concepts of binary oppositions that we so often use as shortcuts to simplify, describe, and understand the world. It is built around the contrast between stable and unstable equilibrium points: it's much easier to tip over the edge and go down into the rabbit hole than it is to sharpshoot your way out. It's got two winged rabbits ("Zero" and "One") that will be for sale when they're done. It's also got lights. And I'm hoping there will be music. I won't be there to turn everything on, so "The Rabbit Hole" is in capable hands of Wilson. It's all yours, Wilson.

I'll be sorry to miss the fun at Tapp's, and I'll sorry to miss the awards day at ArtFields (also on Saturday). I'll be at the beach with my kids. Art is great, but I would be more sorry to miss that. Plus I could really use a day at the beach.

I've been busting my butt on weekends and evenings to complete "Rocket Queen," a seahorse built around the frame of a tandem bicycle.  Don't believe me? Watch the video.

The piece will be on display (and for sale) this Saturday at Kinetic Derby Day in West Columbia. This is a new event, and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. I'm going to take my kids to the parade and the race in the morning, and visit my beloved seahorse at some point. I'm not familiar with West Columbia, but it shouldn't be too hard to spot an eight-and-a-half-foot-tall seahorse. I made sure it would poke up above the crowd.

As for the name . . .  My original concept for the piece was an exploration of the complementary tension between art and science. I used a lot of blue and orange because they are complementary colors (and because I had an old Ford air cleaner that I wanted to use for the snout). I tried to blend in some other complementary oppositions also.

In my book, the song "Rocket Queen" is among the best things that Guns 'N' Roses ever did. It energetically blends the "guns" and the "roses" sides into a single thread that wraps around and bookends itself. Remember the "duality of man" scene from Full Metal Jacket? At its best, the music of Guns 'N' Roses is that.  Holding and accepting two contradictory ideas in your head (and heart) at the same time isn't easy. Art can do that.

The song is also important to me historically. I first heard Appetite for Destruction at a small party in high school. It was a crazy night that I feel like I remember better than I probably actually do. The album blew me away from the first time I heard it. I got someone to make a cassette for me, but the last part of the last song -- "Rocket Queen" -- got cut off because of length. I didn't hear the last half of the song until I saw the 1988 concert at The Ritz on MTV. In that performance, Axl Rose disappears during one of the verses and then tosses the microphone at someone offstage before the very end of the song. So I didn't hear all of the song. But I did get to hear most of the last part, with those sappy lyrics and an actual melody. That concert made a big impression on me and changed how I wanted my own music to sound and feel. I still like watching it.

Eventually I did get my own copy of the full song. It was a mainstay of mine for years of gearing up and getting going. The whole story worked and still does.

If you're headed to the Kinetic Derby, I hope you have a chance to check out my work. "Rocket Queen" is probably one of the most photogenic things I've made -- ironic because it's so big I haven't yet been able to get a picture of it that I like. I incorporated a mirror if you'd like to work that into your entry in the Zero Point Mechanic selfie contest. I bet it's the biggest seahorse you'll see all weekend.​ 

This is a busy time of year. The field school excavations have entered crunch time (we had another good day on Friday -- watch for the video on Monday), the SAA meetings are fast approaching, I'm trying to lock down plans for my next field project (and the two after that), and I'm using much of the free time I have on evenings and weekends looking forward to the summer art season. By "looking forward" I mean both doing stuff and planning stuff. After a few hours of sleep last night, my brain was awake well before my body should have been. But we all got up, made coffee, and got to work.

​Here's what is going on in my art world.​

2018 Summer Selfie Contest

Last May, my Afterburner show at Tapp's more-or-less inaugurated my "career" as a professional artist. While I don't have anything like that show planned for this summer, I do have pieces scheduled to be shown in various locations and contexts. I thought it would be a fun experiment in brand-building and engagement to create a selfie contest. I finished up the rules this morning. I'll make a custom sculpture for the grand prize winner. I'll have pieces at ArtFields, Kinetic Derby Day, and Luna Lola in April and Tapp's in June and July. There may be additions to the schedule. By doing this I'm hoping to improve my connection with those who like my work as well as encourage people to go out and support other artists. The world is better with cool stuff in it.

Expanded Social Media

In the ramp up to ArtFields and to implement the selfie contest, I have tried to expand and update my social media footprint. Zero Point Mechanic is now on Instagram and Pinterest. If you like those platforms and want to use them to keep up-to-date on in-progress and completed work, please follow me there. I'll still be posting on the Zero Point Mechanic Facebook page and (sometimes) Twitter.

I designed some 5x7 cards to have as promotional materials at ArtFields and elsewhere. In my hurry to get them done so I get them printed and placed where they need to be, I made a really noticeable typo. I'll be stuck with 500 postcards that say "if you're looking for perfection, I'm not your guy." That's fine. I'll fix it next time around.

New Videos

I've managed to get a couple of art-related videos done in the last few weeks. One shows the moving of "Beauty and Grace" to ArtFields and the other chronicles the creation of "Harley." Enjoy!

I grew up on a small farm, so I can verify through personal observation that a chicken really does run around like crazy after you cut its head off.

Things have been hectic both at home and at work over the last month. The coming week is USC's spring break, which will offer a little bit of breather as I won't be in the field this Friday and won't have regular office hours or meetings with students.

Here's some bullet points about what's been going on and what's coming up.

"Finding the Family" Fieldwork Started

As I think I mentioned in the Week 2 video from field school, I've got a complementary project lined up to do some subsurface reconnaissance (i.e., targeted backhoe excavations) of nearby landforms that are similar to the one we are working on for the field school. At least some of those landforms -- also alluvial -- probably contain archaeological deposits, perhaps of different age ranges than 38FA608.  Anyway, the first step is to establish some known points that we can use for mapping our excavations. I've spent a couple of days in the field doing that, one with Eddie Reeps who used his GPS rig to help determine the coordinates of a handful of far-flung points that I set (by sinking rebar). 

This work is being funded by an internal USC grant. I realized this seek that I never actually announced it or described it via my blog, so I'll do that sometime in the near future.

My First Holi: That Was Fun!

Last weekend, my family and I joined some of our Indian friends (and their Indian friends) to celebrate Holi. This is a holiday that I knew nothing about before the rise of social media. The bright colors make it naturally photogenic. 

This was a really interesting experience. Speaking as an "alien" with very little foreknowledge about what to expect,  I was struck by both the overall positivity of the atmosphere and the sense that it was a time/place where "normal" cultural rules were put on temporary suspension. There was color (and water) everywhere, much of it applied to your face and body by strangers. It's a strange kind of intimacy, not unlike what I experienced at the fringes of the mosh pit at Against Me! 

I wish we could have stayed for the food, but the little kids were on overload/meltdown and a retreat was the best option.

Friday Field School Video Will Be . . . Delayed

Our ongoing work at the field school site (38FA608) went well. We had another beautiful day with plenty of sun and high temperatures in the low 60's. The crew was smaller than normal.

I had hoped to get two of the Late Archaic features out of the ground, but it was not to be . . . they are going to take the time they're going to take, and that's all there is to it. While Feature 3 (exposed in the machine-cut wall) was completely removed, Feature 11 remains in progress. Both of these features are defined by dark fill contained some carbonized plant remains (including nutshell) and a low density of lithics. Feature 11 is deeper than I anticipated, and the fact that it intrudes into earlier deposits makes i's excavation complicated. I lined our ongoing excavation with landscape fabric and filled it with back dirt to protect it until we return.

I probably won't get the video from Friday done on Monday.  I'm not sure, but it may be next Monday before I upload the Week 8 video. We won't be in the field this week because of spring break. Watch for the premiere of "trowel cam."

"Harley" Ready to Move!

I finished my first officially-commissioned sculpture: a scrap metal javelina named "Harley." It's be a steady weekend project, occupying the large majority of time I've spent in my workshop since late January. I think it turned out great - perhaps one of the best pieces I've made. The "formal" pictures are here on my ZeroPointMechanic website. There will be a video when I get the time to put it together. 

"Beauty and Grace:" Final Prep Before ArtFields

Next week (I think on Tuesday the 20th), I'll finally have to face the challenge of moving "Beauty and Grace" to Lake City, SC, for ArtFields 2018. The piece will be displayed on lawn in front of The Citizens Bank (209 East Main Street). My friend and archaeology colleague Chris Gillam has agreed to help me get the ceratopsians moved and reassembled. I'm not sure what I promised in return, but I'm sure it was something. As it stands now, my plan is to get some segments of heavy-duty PVC to use as rollers when moving the components of the piece over the lawn. Some 2x4's and a crowbar will also come in handy. If it was good enough for ancient Egypt, it will be good enough for me.

I've started prepping both pieces to finally live outside. I cleared space in my workshop yesterday so that I could wheel "Beauty" inside and apply a coat of Penetrol, which will arrest the rusting, bring out colors, and provide a barrier to moisture. It also makes the entire piece shiny, which I'm not a huge fan of. But it's better than all the colors degrading to an even rusty orange. The coating is sticky as it dries for 48 hours, so I had to apply it in a space that I could enclose to prevent the omnipresent March aerosol of pine pollen from becoming a permanent part of the piece.  "Grace" will go next.

An Unknown Road Trip

I will be spending a few days this week on a road trip with my older daughter. We don't know where we're going. We may not know where we're going until after we've already been there. It's tradition.

A 250-mile radius from Columbia includes most of North Carolina and Georgia as well as eastern Tennessee. I had some thoughts about going to Florida to see Cape Canaveral and/or a restaurant with a mermaid show, but that might be too heavy on the driving, too pre-planned, and too expensive. Plus I'm not really impressed with Florida's government right now and not enthusiastic about spending my money there.

If you know of a "good," out-of-the-way destination in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, or Tennessee that I should be aware of, post away. I've driven by the UFO Welcome Center in Bowman, SC, but not yet stopped (it looks like it has been trashed). I went out of my way on my last swing through North Carolina to visit the Andre the Giant museum, only to find it closed. I'll probably try to avoid the Myrtle Beach area. 

I spent a little bit of time with Nic Jones of WLTX (our local CBS affiliate) yesterday morning talking about my art. This is the piece he put together, which ran on last night's news. Thanks Nic!

Most of my time during the first three weeks of the semester has been consumed with getting this year's field school season off to a good start, catching up in my lab, and doing stuff around the house. I have had some time on evenings and weekends, though, to work in the garage, and there are other art things in the works I wanted to mention. Here's what's new.

New Videos

As I've grown more comfortable with the video editing software I use (Adobe Premiere), I've become more efficient at making videos. Videos aren't a complete replacement for writing, but I think they provide something that writing doesn't. I've posted several more to my YouTube channel over the last month. Here they are in case you missed them.

Kinetic Derby Day

There's a new festival coming to West Columbia in April: Kinetic Derby Day. I'm planning on participating as an artist in some form or fashion, although we have yet to work out the details. I've created a lot of new stuff since my Afterburner show at Tapp's last summer, but ideally I want to make something brand new to roll out. I've got ideas and materials, and I've started working on it. I'm not going to say what it is because that commitment would add pressure that would make it less fun. I'll just say it will be bigger than a bread basket. 

About a year and a half ago, I moved all my art content from an old website onto this one. A lot has happened since then, and I decided this fall that it was time to circle back around and create a separate site dedicated to my art and the whole mess of personal stuff that goes with it. Here it is: Zero Point Mechanic. 

I've spent a lot of my free time since the end of the semester assembling and "organizing" content. I didn't want to spend the time trying to explain everything, so I decided that I would explain nothing. If you've read any of the stories about my art, you know that a lot of it is about interacting with memories. I created the new website as a vehicle that would both help me do that and provide a place to display pictures of my work. I didn't really know how I would group things until I started to do it. It's both strange and comforting seeing patterns in what I've been interested in, fascinated with, and bothered by, stretching back to my childhood. 

I've only had a digital camera since about 2005 -- less than a third of my life. There is a lot more content that will come from the boxes (and boxes, and boxes) of printed photographs, audio, video, and personal artifacts that I've got in my closet and attic. The website is a work in progress and probably always will be.

As it says on the homepage, if you want to see pictures of recent work, visit the Gallery. Each image there leads to a separate page for the piece, usually with images taken "in progress." When I write about my art, I still plan on doing it on this blog. Blog posts are linked as screenshots of the title.

The Sketchbook section is probably the best portal to start exploring, if you're so inclined. Clicking on many of the sketches will lead you elsewhere, and so on and so on. At this point there are links I have yet to establish, and there may be whole sections that don't link to anything yet. That will change as I have time to develop the site further.  

People are hugely important to my memories. I have tried to err on the side of not including recognizable images of other people, however, because I wasn't sure that they would always like it. My goal isn't to make anyone mad, but to provide myself with some memory cue cards. So if you see a picture of yourself and you'd like it removed, just let me know. 

​Enjoy!