Darrell Tousley and Professor Brian Christensen, Visual Arts
The definition of eccentric is to deviate from an established pattern or form, accepted usage or conduct. I feel that this one word describes best what I do. The decision do this piece was based on the simple idea that lifting more weight can make you stronger. I believe this to be true with talents as well as with muscles. Though I do not see it as my strongest piece, I feel it was the work most critical in the series I have pursued. Beginning with a formal idea that started with the artistic element of movement, I learned how certain objects and movements have conceptual weight. Though I did not intend to, when it was finished I looked at it and saw I had created a large representation of myself. In completing the Bowler Coaster I stretched my mind, my abilities and learned the importance of integrating conceptual elements in creating art.
When I installed my sculpture in the Harris Fine Art Center, I simply called it “an eccentric sculpture.” I thought it was interesting how many people took this to be my installations name. Once the name Bowler Coaster was mentioned people began referring to my piece using what they thought was a nickname. It has always interested me how people and things “earn” their names. It is part of my process to observe and record not only reactions to the works I create make but the names they earn.
My decision to go forward with the Bowler Coaster was based on the simple idea that working hard and staying focused on a destination creates an atmosphere conducive to learning and growth. How much a person grows depends greatly on his or her commitment to walk a certain path. When I first thought of the Bowler Coaster, I was already making machines that worked with commonly used objects. They seemed to be missing something important and even though they were curious items, I felt that I could better express ideas. When I thought of the Bowler Coaster, I knew I had a long way to go to express myself well through the medium I had chosen. The decision to go forward with a project so large was a hard one. I knew that once started it would take total commitment to finish and I wasn’t sure I would be able to create a work that would justify the time, money, and energies that would be involved. I finally decided to commit to it knowing that working on it and seeing it through would force me to grow and progress at an accelerated rate.
I began with a mock up that worked with cue balls. I made it with the purpose of solving the most critical problems and making affordable mistakes. The process was fraught with problems that would have been fatal errors had they been made on the large coaster. After working through the problems with the mock up the larger coaster was made. Size alone gave the Bowler Coaster different problems that were found and solved every day of the three months construction took place. To try and summarize the total efforts in different places and the time spent solving even the smallest problems would take up pages. Just moving the coaster after building it behind the sculpture building into the HFAC was a logistical nightmare. The reason it finally was finished was because of unselfish time given by many sculpture students that are my closest friends.
The Bowler Coaster is the most critical piece of work I have made. Through it I have learned to see the relationship between conceptual and visual weight. I have learned how to let these speak. The merging of formal elements and their conceptual weights is a very important step. If done well, I can speak clearly and be confident my art will be understood. The Bowler Coaster helped me push through reservations I had about surface and the quality of a pieces construction. The success of my latest pieces I credit to the loosening of many preconceived thoughts about process. All the works I make in the future will reflect the growth that has occurred in the completing of this project.
When I finished at three in the morning, I took a couple of hours to personally critique it. Looking at it together for the first time was quite overwhelming for me. It had been the product of so many efforts by so many different people. I had made two towers that were mirror images of each other. I began to wonder why it was that I had made them that way. I have always been at the foot of a learning disability. The reason I made it that way was because it is how I see the world. Always backward no matter where I’m standing. I began to think about how my mind had never functioned quite right and I realized why it was so important that I make these machines and that they work. I had created a sculpture that functioned with elements that don’t normally work together. I had created a working model of myself.
In completing this Bowler Coaster I learned how to create works that better express my ideas. I am more flexible then I have ever been. It was a great success not because of the attention it received, but because of how much I grew working through it. I appreciate programs such as ORCA that provide assistance to working artists. The grant I received played a critical role in making the track that the bowling ball rolled through. The whole of this sculpture did cost much more than what I received from ORCA but the grant acted like a piece of a giant puzzle that if removed would have left the work unfinished and in parts. It was so critical that all things worked together in harmony to make this project a reality and the ORCA grant did play an important part.