acastronovo.blogspot.com

Robotic Art Exhibit, Iowa City

2011-12-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

Pocketbook Mussels

2011-11-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

Last week I had a great discussion with an environmental engineer, Craig Just at the University of Iowa, about the connections between art and science. One of the coolest things he showed me was his lab where he is currently researching freshwater mussels and their abilities to remove nitrates from the Iowa River. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, so I'll have to re-create some imagery here. The Pocketbook Mussel is a fascinating example of the mind-blowing complexity of the natural world. It has a symbiotic relationship with fish, which are lured in by the mussel (there is no fish in this image, that is part of the mussel) and act as hosts temporarily for the clam larvae. Scrubmuncher has a pretty good handle on the process, so I'll point you here. Thanks for the inspiring visit Craig!

2011-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

The Superfund Art Project has really gained momentum over the past few months after receiving funding from the Florida Department of Cultural Affairs and recently awarded a second grant from the EPA. Next march SAP will unveil Region4: Transformation Through Imagination, a ground-breaking exhibition about the science and emotions of the Koppers Superfund Site in Gainesville Florida. Here is an image from my proposal for the show: Citizen Bio-Detector! It is a wearable sensor and data gathering device. It is only a concept now and envisions capabilities for logging pH, temperature, GPS, petro-Vapors, and Total Dissolved Solids data. Learn more at protectgainesville.org

University of Alabama

2011-09-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

This week I was honored to be invited by Sky Shineman and Lucy Curzon of The University of Alabama, to speak with their class as a visiting artist. They are co-teaching a class called Art and its Publics, which is a graduate level seminar on public art. Thanks Sky and Lucy!

Inflatable Sculptures!

2011-04-03T15:32:00.001-07:00

The WARP program at UF always does an inflatable sculpture project, and I've always meant to incorporate it into one of my sculpture classes. This semester at Santa Fe College I have a small group of Sculpture 2 students and these are the inflatable sculptures they created. Lorenzo Collante created the Jellyfish; Chelsea Bomar created the Tulip; David Tonnelier and Frank Grey created the Ship and Octopus. Nice work, they all are spectacular!!!

New Jersey Opening

2010-08-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

The opening was well attended last weekend, lots of great feedback, and Heliotropis performed as intended. It ran continuously for 3hrs and then closed and illuminated after sunset. A few journalists took photos, here is one by Peter Lindner of Red Bank Green:

The piece was also mentioned in a thoughtful review by Lee Gaizak Brooks of Glass Quarterly.

So much can happen in three months....

2010-07-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've been to NJ and back now for a surprisingly challenging install. I though it would take three days, it took two weeks! In the end one of the leaves cracked and is currently being re-fabricated to take back. It looks amazing there, it is such a perfect setting. Katy and I built a beautiful little house and are almost ready to expect a beautiful little girl to join us. Heliotropis will have a one day reception August 14, so that is what I'm working on now.

visit www.acastronovo.com for more info

Patinas......

2010-03-30T16:07:00.001-07:00

One step closer!

2010-03-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Well I'm getting closer to having all the pieces to actually test the mechanism! Lately I've been fitting the bronze pieces to the glass, and working on the central hub/neck piece. Here are all of the petals:

Thank you Lisa!

2010-02-18T19:56:00.000-08:00

My friend Lisa used to work on a butterfly farm, and she gets these moths from larvae and keeps them in these wax envelopes in the fridge! This is a Luna Moth, very cool!

Sooo Long.......

2010-02-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

Terrible I know, the lack of posts here, but I have been working! Here is an image of the neck and central hinge hub where all of the petals come together.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

2009-12-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

As usual it's been a crazy past few weeks, and now that the pour is finished, it seems so long ago.... This is one pic from the second day of the bronze casting. Everything went smoothly, all 24 of my pieces came out though some have some cracks that will have to be filled.

Fibers

2009-11-19T17:26:00.000-08:00

Today we were fortunate enough to have a visit from fiber artist Erin Curry! She gave us a brief presentation on her work, introduced us to many beautiful natural fibers, demonstrated various spinning techniques, and gave a felting demo. What an awesome, inspiring experience!

Bronze Casting!

2009-11-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

I've been working on the mechanism for heliotropis mostly, and this week I will cast the bronze petiole plates, which will join the glass petals to the central hinge hub. The process I use is lost wax ceramic slurry- you can see all of the brown wax positives before dipping, and the chunky orange ceramic silica shell after 8 layers of dipping.

Central hub

2009-11-07T13:30:00.001-08:00

Sent from the field!

TJ Erdahl and Dialogic Sound

2009-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the opportunity to collaborate with TJ Erdahl on this beautifully rich ceramic sculpture installation. TJ is an extremely talented ceramic sculptor who combines texture with electronics to create contemplative works about inner and outer dialogues. The interaction was an artist's residency of sorts as TJ was awarded a supporting grant from NCECA, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. I'll have to get the exact title from TJ, but the conceptual thrust of the work is based on an opposing dialogue, that of boy and world as in a young boy being told what he can and can't do. The electronics are a mashup of arduino, mp3 players, and other custom electronics. The audio is triggered by an Infra-red sensor and is randomized to give many unique compositions of the always opposing voices. It was a lot of fun to work with TJ on this piece! Check out the thick, crunchy textures! Amazing! Thanks TJ-

Massage Peddler

2009-10-17T11:44:00.001-07:00

This is a custom-altered Burley D-Lite kids trailer, re-designed to carry a massage table above and sheets or clothing below. It was a fairly simple conversion- just cut the sidewalls down, re-sew sleeves to create new, lower edge, and bend new pipe to form side rails. After that, I added two pinned cross bars that quickly clip out to allow flat folding of the sidewalls. With this light and practical trailer my friend Aaron will be a Massage Peddler for hire, going zero-carbon and biking to you to give you a great massage!

Crystals

2009-10-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about crystals, how they display the complexity of nature in a visually simple way, and how they are symbols of value that men and women place upon them.

The Klein Bottle is a sort of crystal, it's interior and exterior are one and the same, interchangeable surfaces. I am thinking of doing an open space frame in stainless, more geometric than the drawing above.

progress

2009-09-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few images of four finished petals for heliotropis:

Zeta Beta Tau

2009-08-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

Last week Katy began this mural for the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at the University of Florida. They provided the general idea for content and Katy came up with this design. I helped a bit and did some of the background work and lettering- it was a lot of fun! Check out more from mural artist Katy Castronovo on her website here>

Heliotropis

2009-08-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the final design for Heliotropis. It will be a solar powered kinetic sculpture, collecting energy from the sun to open and close the glass petals throughout the day. Eventually different environmental stimuli will be added into the mix to give variation to it's behavior. I'm well on my way, pulling the ceramic mold out of the kiln today to start forming petals, and welding the main stem structure. Scheduled completion is Spring 2010!

Fountain Restoration

2009-06-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

This fountain was created by Gay Hanna, and is owned by Amy Vigilante and Taylor Dickerson of Gainesville, FL. It is about 13 yrs old and in desperate need of attention after years of sitting outside in the Florida humidity. The wooden basin, lined with fiberglass, was totally rotten and the copper and brass elements had lost their original verdigris and tarnished a dark mineral rust. After re-building the basin, cleaning all metal parts, and re-applying patina, the sculpture was ready to soothe and calm for many more years!

New Commission: Heliotropis

2009-05-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a sketch of my new project Heliotropis. It is a solar powered kinetic piece, a flower that blooms with the day and responds to its environment. The colors are still uncertain, i've been considering red for the petals, but I like this violet a lot... the flower and stamen will be glass, the stem stainless. This work is being commissioned by Beth Deutch and Larry Rubin in Rumson, NJ.

Rose Colored Lenses

2009-05-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the installation at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre: more images to come....

Progress.....

2009-03-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest, time to start making molds for slumping the glass!

Rose Colored Lenses

2009-01-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a sketch of my current project, Rose Colored Lenses. The sculpture is a commission for the first annual Florida's First Coast Arts Festival, hosted by the St. Augustine Amphitheater and produced by Tony Mata and Kevin Marshall of the University of Florida's Colege of Fine Arts. The festival will be a week full of music, theatre, dance, and an outdoor sculpture exhibition of works by UF School of Art and Art History students and alumni.

The material here is raw, rusty steel and seven deep-red, hot-formed glass domes or lenses.

For Tyler...

2008-12-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

Here is our first attempt at the knitted treehouse. A single piece of 1/2 inch nylon rope, 500 feet long, was used to knit the structure. Two platforms were knitted into the structure to give it shape and to create a sitting area. The base is anchored using eight 16 inch ground anchors, the screw type; the top is tightened with a large ratchet-strap.

2008-11-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

Tree Houses!

2008-08-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

This summer I completed another custom tree house commission, for Carmel Buckley, Mark Harris, and their son Luke in Cincinnati. The tree was a large beech, about four feet in diameter at the base.

There was a seventeen-year Cicada bloom, which had thousands of these mechanical, vibrating beauties flying all about, and singing a rich, intense hum for days!

Links for my Peeps

2008-07-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

we should all be doing it, im taking this time to represent some links for people i know:

piano tuner toledo
piano restoration toledo
pianos for sale toledo
pianos toledo

chlorine safety training
safety services training
safety training videos

custom metal sculpture
custom outdoor sculpture
helium balloon flight

kite repair
hand made kites
kite artist

Well As If....

2008-06-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

AS if i dint know that you'd been waiting, I suppose youd like to go see whose really been workin at howheavybyhowfar.blogspot.com......

first podcast

2008-02-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

Flickr

2008-01-28T08:55:00.001-08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

dougprentiss.com

2008-01-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

This is from a recent project that Katy and I are doing for my Uncle
Doug. Katy is re-drawing all of his graphics and I am building the
website. His company is Safety Services, and provides safety training
for confined spaces, water, and wastewater treatment facilities.

Enclosure

2008-01-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

The Happenings

2008-01-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

This is a new blog and will be an open space for experimentation and
development of the artistic ideas I am exploring.