I’ve ordered a bunch of metal today. New steel to work with. I’m trying to get some second hand fridge doors as well to see what possibilities they might yield.
I’m in love with rust. I love seeding it, and watching it grow. Working with rust is like being a Sheppard; guiding a little molecular flock to graze on specific areas of the steel while protecting other areas.
t’s not like painting, where the artists hand is involved in every stroke. Using this technique, Nature splits the work with me. I create areas where I want the rust to flourish and let the Universe take over from there. The winds, rains and snow all slowly have their effect and corrode the steel as they will.
And that’s what I love about this artistic technique. The unpredictable forces of Nature are at work, contributing in a very real way to each piece in a chaotic fashion that I cannot directly control like a brush or a pen.
Lake Okanagan during winter wind storm.
I’ll leave you with these shots I took last winter down by Lake Okanagan at one of my favorite spots. This was one of the coldest days I’ve experienced in Naramata by a long shot (minus 20 Celsius/minus 4 Fahrenheit). The sun was setting, it was crazy windy and the lake looked like it was trying to freeze. I’m sure it would have the surface wasn’t so turbulent. I took a series of 32 shots that day before my hand and face started yelling at me to get home and warm up.
Wicked lighting and deathly cold.
