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Our
Process
Research
Our work incorporates significant periods of research as part of the
design process, and may include traditional work in libraries or historical
societies, interviews, or gathering data in the field - a task which
encompasses everything from asking local fishermen what they catch in
the river, to photographing statuary in cemeteries, pressing leaves,
or sitting in a room with visually impaired students and talking about
what kinds of forms and materials are understood with your hands or
your tongue.
Design
Concurrent with and growing from the research process, design begins.
While we are an artist team, we work as one mind during design phases
of a project, forwarding ideas to each other, proposing shifts and changes,
occasionally arguing, pushing and pulling elements drawn from the site,
our research, past experience, and the needs of the client until a point
of clarity or resolution is reached.
Dozens of preliminary sketches are created in a progressively evolving
design. Models, sometimes crude, sometimes precisely finished, are built
to explore formal qualities of an emerging idea, the engineering of
a sculptural form, or the scale of an artwork relative to a given site.
Design work is alchemy of a sort. One never knows where the process
will lead, and part of the challenge is recognizing the right idea as
it emerges from a forest of detail.
Production
At our studio near Stockholm, Wisconsin, we do our design work, carve
stone and wood, and fabricate smaller metal structures. Stone is delivered
in blocks from quarries throughout the midwest and Canada, and shaped
by hand to forms which range from the abstract to the immediately recognizable.
Patterns for lost-wax casting in bronze or glass are prepared, and molds
are made. Wood is carved and assembled for patterns, models, and completed
works.
Larger structures, or sculptural elements requiring specialized tools
and equipment to produce, are built offsite under our supervision by
fabricators in a number of fields. At the end of the production process,
elements of a work are shipped to their site and installed, and finishing
touches are completed.
Our Priorities
We began working collaboratively in 1993. Since that time we have completed
more than three dozen commissioned works in communities throughout the
United States.
We strive to:
• respect the end-users of an artwork;
• emphasize experiences which unite us in community;
• articulate of the unique qualities of a place and its people;
• create functional, lively spaces which encourage interaction
and foster civic life;
• develop artwork which is conceptually accessible, yet contains
elements of mystery which encourage and reward repeated exploration;
• use timeless, high-quality materials, and assure that technical
aspects of an artwork's design enhance its longevity;
• design for simple maintenance, and create artwork which permits
safe enjoyment by people of a broad range of ages and abilities;
• bring a spirit of play to public gathering places, and pair it
with the potential for art to serve as a teaching tool, illuminating
key aspects of a site, its uses, or its history.
It is our strong belief that the best civic artwork forges connections
between people and their physical environment, celebrates the unique
qualities of a place, and communicates our ideas, dreams, and goals
for our communities to each other. Public art is the physical manifestation
of the values we hold in common. We are committed to the creation of
art which is beautiful and meant to be shared.
Capacity
Because we understand the practical realities of creating sculpture
for the public realm, we work in durable materials selected for their
toughness, beauty, and ease of maintenance. As an artist team, we bring
complimentary skills to our working relationship- a shared aesthetic
and high technical abilities, research skills, experience in traditional
and high-tech sculptural processes, project budgeting and management
expertise, and years of experience in community- and end user-driven
public artwork executed in partnership with design professionals in
architecture, landscape architecture, and engineering fields.
We have design and fabrication experience in a wide variety of media,
including:
• cast & fabricated metals
• carved stone
• cast glass
• carved and fabricated wood
• water-jet cut mosaic work
• terrazzo
• earthworks and landscape design
• precast materials
• fountains and pools
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