Land Art Project -

"Sky Box I - Collapsed"
land art sculpture by Mick Mather

As mentioned, I was fairly certain that the wind would take this piece apart sooner than later and that's exactly what happened. Even as I believe that wind damage is a certainty, my instinct tells me that some bird quite likely attempted to take a look, perhaps even shelter, in Sky Box I. Also, as mentioned, Sky Box II is in the planning stages while this documentation continues.

Land Art Project -

"Sky Box I, Plate 4"
land art sculpture by Mick Mather

While perfect weather was available I went ahead with construction using the foundation shown and documented yesterday. Just as I thought I might, I moved to larger twigs and branches to create this shoulder high, 1-foot square box. With the extra weight, it began to tilt, one corner came undone and more tying, using long grass, was necessary. A twig, as a support between said corner and a lower branch of the huckleberry bush, was also added. It's relatively stable and decidedly complete, but I do expect that the first strong wind will take it apart and that's okay. I actually prefer the original plan, to build Sky Box with wild grain stalks, and I may harvest a basket full before the snow flies and work on a proper weaving of Sky Box II that can be carried out and installed on any fair day that arrives thereafter. I'll be posting other views of Sky Box I at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG as time goes by ... also, some digital studies and manipulations of the original sketch - like this one - will be posted there from time to time. Enjoy.

Land Art Project -

"Kings Court Cube - In Progress, Day Four"

land art sculpture by Mick Mather

The rainy weather has kept me from working on the cube for the past two days. This morning, with a medium fog lending its ambiance to the muted, morning light, I went out to see how it withstood these minimal atmospheric changes. I actually added about a half dozen more pieces but working with the available materials in such a soggy state proved pointless. Anyway, here's a progress report and, just below, a short and quite bad, movie.

Land Art Project -

"Kings Court Cube - In Progress, Day Three"
land art sculpture by Mick Mather

I may have overestimated the amount of available material on site ... I still have a foot to go and it's taking longer and longer to gather appropriate branches with which to complete the piece. It looks like rain for the next few days and that will put a crimp in my work schedule. I hope to have it completed by Sunday if at all possible.

Land Art Project -

"Kings Court Cube - In Progress, Day One"
land art sculpture by Mick Mather

I'll post the finished work at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG of course, but the work record during construction of the cube will be documented here. For a peek at the digital study that inspired this public artwork, have a peek here.

Public Art For Public Arteries -

- click image to enlarge for reading -

Totem Project Article from The Post-Standard

This public art project continues to move forward and I've been scrambling to catch up with organizing and saving the press clippings, photographs and magazine articles. Once both phases are complete and we have all of the funded 16 sculptures in place, I may open another blog just for that project. Some interest by The City of Rome, New York and another development organization in Rochester, New York have shown interest in copying this model. I must say, if that happens, I'll be about as pleased as I've been about a project that I've had the good fortune to initiate and see through to fruition. A related post about the newspaper scraps torn away during one article clipping session can be seen here at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG.

Two Hour Parking -

"Pub Dart"
The Totem Project
public sculpture - wood, metal and coated wire by Mick Mather & Rick Destito

In 2002 I began a journey into the realm of Public Art. In my home town, Syracuse, New York, I saw that the City was replacing parking meters with parking meter pay stations, leaving hundreds of headless parking meter posts behind. What to do with these? My idea was to sleeve public sculptures over the old posts - using them as a foundation for installation. To that end I began applying for funding and formed partnerships with The City of Syracuse Department of Community Development within the Tomorrow's Neighborhoods Today (TNT) Program, The Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse & Onondaga County, 40 Below Public Arts Task Force, The Downtown Committee and The Armory Square Association. To give the early cross-eyed looks and skewed glances a better idea of what I meant, my own design for a sculpture, the Pub Dart seen here, was passed around the table. 4 years later, this project is finally being installed with 16 artists siting 16 different sculptures in 16 different places in Downtown Syracuse, New York. Can you say road trip? I knew that you could!